HEKATORIS (ヘカトーリス)
by Azure Umbra
Summary: [-Final Space AU-] 30 years ago, individuals across the galaxy spontaneously developed dark powers, becoming known as Tenebri and plunging every known world into an era of destruction and strife, threatening peace galaxywide. But even in a time of division, a chance meeting between one regular person and a Tenebrus may offer the possibility of a redefined status quo.
1. Prologue: The Great Galactic Blackout

It was a chaotic, hectic, and congested morning on the planet fragment city of Tera Con Prime. Thousands of citizens of various alien species flocked all over the relatively narrow and circular streets lining the hollow wall of the city's natural crater to head to work. Because there was never really enough space to traverse the limited cityscapes, people were often prone to get in each other's way, slowing things down distinguishably for everyone. One particular alien individual, a female Hooblot, was feeling exceptionally cramped. She tried very hard to avoid getting too close to any alien around her, hoping she wouldn't have to accidentally smell one or get touched by another's limbs. She wondered to herself why these people were like this, why they won't at least try to give each other room to make their trips and working lives easier, to make this city a better place to live even if the way said city was built never could. She couldn't be spared a single second to contemplate some kind of solution when a random alien stepped on her foot. Unable to hold back her pain, her eyes darkened and she burst, a shockwave of burning energy and living darkness enveloping everyone on the street, smashing and scorching everything in its path.

It was a listless afternoon on planet Ventrexia. Most of its cat-like natives were either out on the planet's surface doing some patrols or were in their military installations preparing for hypothetical ambushes and campaigns. The greatest chunk of Ventrexian culture revolved around combat and the prowess that came with it. Aside from that, no other part of these people's lives never really stood out enough to matter in the eyes of the known galaxy. One particular Ventrexian struggled as he got knocked down again during another tedious sparring match. Knocked off his feet, he wanted to focus on the pain he felt from falling to ignore the mean-spirited remarks of his sparring partner and several other cadets who were watching too. No matter how many times he tried to improve his techniques, he never quite seemed to qualify as a standard Ventrexian warrior. He questioned why he was being forced to allow his life to be like this, why he had to be a soldier even if he possibly wouldn't get to fight anything. He only wished he could just stay where he lived on the planet, living a peaceful life like most other people across the galaxy who weren't interested in conflict. The taunts from his sparring partner and the other cadets were the final straw. His eyes darkened and released a shockwave of burning energy and living darkness, consuming everyone present in the room.

It was a dreadful and apprehensive night on the planet Serepentis. Cultists were lined up in preparation to offer up another sacrifice to one of their serpentine deities in hopes of gaining everlasting blessings. Effectively almost all the time, people were flocking together to volunteer themselves to give up their own lives, hoping they can get some kind of reward that would outweigh their current mortal existences. A Serepentian woman stood in the crowd, and she was getting very close to the front before the site where one of the planet's gods resided. When she first joined the line of would-be sacrifices, she thought long and hard of the possible rewards she could ask of the serpent deities, but with each reward she thought of, she began to wonder more and more about the actual cost of those rewards, especially in comparison to whatever she got in her current life now. She started to question why she and the rest of her people were so easily willing to end their own lives just to satisfy some being that will hunger again. She had second thoughts. She wasn't ready to end it all soon. She wondered why she was even in line to begin with. A shove from another cultist behind her to get moving prompted her to try and escape. Seeing no way out, she panicked. Her eyes darkened and she screamed, releasing a blast of burning energy and living darkness that destroyed everyone unfortunate enough to be standing around her.

* * *

In other parts of the galaxy, more of this same phenomenon was happening on different planets with their own residents: On Yarno, an alien unleashed dark energy at a bigger alien that fanatically tried to tear his head off. On Earth, a human exploded with dark energy on their way to give a report. On Zetakron Alpha, a colonist fired dark energy that tore up a residential facility. On Sorbo, another colonist caused a dark energy-based collapse of a major installation. On Galang-22, a commoner razed a neighborhood with dark energy during a royal procession. On Rugaro, a Beforian engulfed a group of his fellows with dark energy. On Talpa-X, cave systems housing settlements collapsed under violent emissions of dark energy from individual residents. Blazes of dark energy tear up the structures composing Darga Space Port while causing crashes. The Toro Regatta race was cut short with a series of dark energy discharges. Many more planets were pulsing with individuals suddenly emitting dark energy across their surfaces.

"_Unexplained cases of individual combustion all over the galaxy…"_

"_The Infinity Guard is responding to incidents of spontaneous fission…"_

"_Tenebrism, a sudden mutation that is thought to cause self-detonation…"_

"_Governments on all planets and systems take action to stop Tenebrus-related surges."_

"_Segregation policies are being implemented…"_

"_Terrorist attacks by the radical group Mad Tenebri are on the rise…"_

"_Infinity Guard-appointed specialist Dr. Bluestein say that oppression of the Tenebri may lead to concurrent blazes galaxywide."_

While these incidents had started out small and isolated, they rapidly grew over the years: individuals being detained by authorities, extended mass funerals and screenings, movements between both sides springing up and getting into fights with each other, other various groups using their powers on settlements and landscapes to assert devastating displays and statements. It eventually all culminated with entire planets being engulfed by explosions of dark energy, enough that every planet's surface was effectively blanketed by this destructive darkness. Some were scorched, others shattered, even laid barren or toxified. Thankfully for those who survived, these disasters did not last for long.

"_The Great Galactic Blackout has come to an end."_

"_50% of the galaxy's overall population suffers…"_

"_30 years after the Great Galactic Blackout, we must strive more than ever to keep the peace."_


	2. Tera Con Alpha - Crimson Light

A new day had begun in the city of Tera Con Alpha, the current capital of the known galaxy. The title of capital had formerly belonged to Tera Con Prime, but since its destruction during the Great Galactic Blackout 30 years ago, a new capital city had to be chosen to recover the peace, stability, and safety initially lost. When a viable place to move the capital could not be found, Tera Con Alpha was created, built on the surface of the planet Yarno, which was known for being a reputable haven for refugees. Numbers of people from all over the galaxy moved there to settle into this new place they could call home, hoping that they could permanently return to the sense of normalcy that had persisted until its former loss 30 years before.

Normalcy indeed reigned supreme in the streets of the metropolis contained within its cradled walls, its chrome buildings towering next to and over one another, though all were dwarfed by the elongated set of crystalline spires that stood in the center, which together formed one shining skyscraper. Being of a lighter and shinier color and texture, that building definitely stood out among all the rest which were greyer, so apart from that, there wasn't anything else special…until one of those grey buildings exploded from its windows.

* * *

_"Fire in high-rise building,"_ came a voice over an intercom in a hangar bay, _"Area E-351, Tera Con Alpha Town Square – dispatch request for Crimson Light. Dispatch request for Crimson Light."_

In one corner of the hangar, a bulky Tryvuulian was interrupted in the middle of cleaning his machine gun arm. **[-FOX-]**

In another corner, a green-skinned humanoid alien lounged on a couch lifted up his shades at the sound of the intercom, exposing his six eyes. **[-TRIBORE-]**

Across from him was a black human woman sitting on another couch with a cup of coffee in hand. **[-QUINN-]**

Further away, a stubby cylindrical robot with yellow arms and a red lightbulb on its head was in the middle of calibrating mechanisms next to a big red spacecraft while a little round green alien floated nearby watching it all. **[-HUE-] [-MOONCAKE-]**

A round yellow robot floated in another part of the hangar. **[-KVN-]**

A blond Caucasian human man and an orange-furred Ventrexian just as tall as him were in the middle of a Thimbles game when both their heads turned at the sound of the intercom and alarm that accompanied it. **[-GARY-] [-LITTLE CATO-]**

Everyone immediately scrambled to prepare themselves, snapping open and shutting their lockers to get geared up. When they were done that, they gathered around near the red spaceship. "Everyone ready?" Gary said to everyone after they huddled together.

"Ready!" was everyone's reply. On the blond man's signal, everyone put their fists together and pulled them back in a collected fist bump.

"Alright! Crimson Light's a-go, baby!" Gary yelled out enthusiastically as everyone dashed up the entry ramp into the red ship. Once on board, everyone took their places on the bridge. Gary manned the main pilot's chair while Quinn and Little Cato sat on the other two chairs on either side of him. Fox and Tribore were on standby in the airlock. KVN hung out in the janitor's closet. HUE was stationed at a nearby terminal at the corner of the bridge typing away while Mooncake watched.

"Gary, the ship is ready to launch at any time." HUE said.

"Then let's go!" Gary remarked without hesitation, a daring smile on his face as he looked ahead at the outside. He then looked up to the ceiling. "AVA, start the engines!"

"Commencing engine startup. Just don't step on it too hard, captain." **[-AVA-]**

The ship's engines fired up and the vessel rose off the hangar floor, hovering for a moment before gradually moving out through the gate and then distinguishably zooming higher into the city skyline, making a beeline for the E-351 site.


	3. Crimson Light the way

Pitch black storm clouds of smoke billowed from the high-rise building in Tera Con Alpha's town square down in Area E-351. Discolored flames licked at the shattered holes in the sides and appeared to be breaking the structure down even further. Drones flew overhead and aimed at the flames with devices of their own, shooting out projectiles meant to douse the fires. It didn't last long as they were suddenly thrashed at and knocked from the air by draconic apparitions resembling snakes made of shadow. The downed drones along with those apparitions even crashed onto the pavement below in the vicinity of observing civilians, knocking them off their feet with fright.

"This is bad!" cried out one ground soldier on the scene. Another yelled, "Where's Crimson Light?" Even a third got in on the franticness, "We can't cope! We're doomed!"

"Remain calm, you guys," HUE spoke over the monitor he was operating, making sure to relay his communications to all outside units on the ground. "We are almost there."

"Chookity," Mooncake chimed in from behind HUE.

The red spaceship hovered high above the ground, halfway up the height of the burning building. "There are many people on the 58th floor," HUE reported, turning to face the pilots Gary, Quinn, and Little Cato, whom he stood behind, "It seems to be the center of the Tenebric blaze."

Gary didn't turn his attention anywhere else but stayed focused on the blazing site in front of him. He pressed a button on his controls to activate ship communications. "Fox! Tribore! Get ready to head out there in your anti-Tenebrus gear. Mech suit up!"

Another separate voice cut into Gary's comms. _"I can mech suit up too, Gary!"_

"No, KVN!" Gary slammed a fist on the comms button. "Shut up and stay in the closet!" Breathing a little to calm down, he turned his attention to Quinn at his side. "Quinn, you go help the guys out from the sky while they're on the ground. You got 'em?"

Quinn got off her pilot seat and turned to leave the bridge, though not before placing a hand on Gary's shoulder. "You know it. How can they mess up when I'm there?"

Gary only gave a sly look in return. "Oh, you know how," he purred. Quinn rolled her eyes and left for the airlock to join Fox and Tribore. Gary then turned upwards to address AVA. "AVA! Launch Fox, Tribore, and Quinn as soon as we're in range!"

"Preparing to launch," AVA's voice answered over the ship's intercom. Meanwhile at the airlock, Fox and Tribore were in their mech suits, which looked like average person-sized exoskeletons, standing poised for the bay door to open. Close by, Quinn was secured inside the cockpit of a small craft, a Hawk unit gifted to the Crimson Light by the Infinity Guard itself. The main ship got closer and closer until… "Launching in 3, 2, 1…" the hatch opened, shooting out Fox first. Shortly after, Tribore followed. Both continued to streak towards the flame-covered building, and as they got really close, another shadowy serpent apparition burst from the wreck to attack. It never got a chance to, as Fox swung one arm of his mech suit to deliver an anti-matter punch, obliterating the apparition. Fox and Tribore smashed through the windows and skidded to a stop after a series of dive rolls, entering an inferno of flaming desks and computers.

"Fox is on the scene!" Fox ham-handedly announced. "Got a ton of Tenebrus flares in here!" He initially began pummeling at the attacking apparitions with enthusiasm before quickly noticing he was already starting to get swamped. "Gonna take 'em all down with just two arms AND I DO NOT SEE TRIBORE GIVING ME A HAND!"

"Did somebody say Tribore?" The six-eyed alien charged his way through a flaming pile of wrecked furniture, knocking it away like a bowling ball to pins. He lifted up both arms of his exoskeleton to fire anti-matter beams from attached dual blasters at the swarming apparitions, clearing the area for Fox. He took notice of Fox looking at him. "There. Do you need to thank me? No, you don't." He gave a little pose, a hand on the hip and the other held up in front as a stop-signal while aforementioned hip was arched outward to one side.

"Uh, no. I actually wasn't," Fox complained. "You were supposed to cover me as soon as we got in here!"

"I was busy with some Tenebrus flares of my own," Tribore retorted. "Be grateful I gave you both my hands instead of the one you asked."

_"Guys, don't! Not the time!"_ came Quinn's voice over both aliens' communications. Quinn was already piloting her Hawk just outside the building. _"Fox, where are those civilians?"_

Fox looked around, checking the area with the sensors on his mech suit. "Up ahead!" he reported, eyeing a pair of sealed twin doors meters from where he stood. Without another wasted second, he sprinted for the doors as fast as his weighty mech suit could allow him, giving out a long war cry. As he did that, Tribore aimed his twin anti-matter blasters in another direction where more snakelike Tenebrus flares were zeroing in to attack. He fired rapidly, taking them out before they could reach either him or Fox. Fox finally reached the sealed doors, using pincers on one arm of his mech suit to pry them open, revealing the frightened civilians huddled together inside. "They're all okay." Both Fox and Tribore got to ushering the people out through the cleared path in single file.

"Everyone out." Tribore said reassuringly. "Should you remain calm? Yes, you should." Though he couldn't help but nudge a few by the back with one of his mech suit hands. This earned him a few uncomfortable looks from them. The crunching sounds of the ceiling above prompted everyone to look up to see signs of an imminent collapse, causing the civilians to panic.

"I got it!" Fox rushed over and used the arms of his mech suit to hold up the collapsing ceiling. He then deployed a little device that projected a holographic bubble that floated in front of the civilians. "Everyone hop in while we're clear!" He waited as one half of the group jumped into the protective bubble, the space being big enough for the whole group. Tribore was doing the same thing with the other half of the group. Once every single one of them was onboard, both Fox and Tribore tethered the bubbles to themselves and ran for the outside again, smashing through another set of windows and climbing down the wall with precise scaling.

At the same time, Quinn was flying past them, upward and higher as she scanned for more people in need of rescue. She heard Gary's voice on her comms. _"Ship's up at the halfway point, waiting on Fox and Tribore to pick 'em up! Quinn, how's it going?"_

"The 58th floor rescue's all good! They're moving now!" Quinn then turned her attention back to the Hawk's controls, continuing her rapid ascent up the building. She read the projected data on the glass of the cockpit as picked up by the scanners. "There are people on the roof too! I'm moving in!" She directed the Hawk to move forward to the smoke-covered rooftop to make another rescue, but found herself blocked by irregular streams of void-like energy lashing out from the plumes. "Dang it!" Quinn held tight on the controls, "Tenebrus sparks! I can't get any closer! I need assistance!"

* * *

Back in the ship, Gary listened to everything Quinn had just said over the comms. He turned to Little Cato next to him. "Sounds like Quinn's in a bit of a jam. Also those people she mentioned…must be a mass Tenebrus-trapped people jam."

Little Cato arched an eyebrow cheekily, "Guess that means she needs us to spread out." Gary returned the look. Both nodded at each other and left their seats, though not before Gary told AVA to operate the ship while they were going out.

By the time both the human and Ventrexian made it to the airlock, they had just finished doing a complex buddy handshake coupled by a few impromptu dance moves. "Aw yeah! Finally time for action!" Little Cato cheered as he and Gary got into their mech suits; the mech suit Gary was in had a slightly bulky metallic-colored pack on its back. "Sets my warrior soul ablaze! Blazes of glory, right Thunder Bandit?"

"Oh, you can say that again, Spider Cat!" said Gary with a competitively higher level of enthusiasm. "Between us, one's on fire while the other's in flames! Who's it gonna be?"

"I can help decide who if you're not planning on heading out now," came an interruption from AVA. That made the two hurry up in their mech suits faster, though not without one of them muttering _'Geez, AVA.'_ AVA remarked, "I heard that."

_"Guys, now's not the time to mess around!"_ Quinn spoke to them over the comms again. _"AVA, can you get them to floor 108?"_

"I'll bring them in as close as I can. I won't be able to get right to the 108th floor due to the Tenebrus sparks. Gary, Little Cato, you will need to perform a jettison maneuver from a few floors below the 108th."

"Well, looks like we don't have a choice," Gary concluded. He looked at Little Cato again. "Race you to the top?"

Little Cato grinned. "Loser has to –…"

The airlock suddenly opened, sending both Little Cato and Gary shooting out the ship and up the side of the building, the wind blowing away at their hair and faces – eyelids, cheeks, and lips combined. They zoomed up past Fox and Tribore and then stopped in midair just at the same level where Quinn was, just right over the courtyard-sized promenade deck on floor 108. Their ascent slowed down and then proceeded to fall right down to the deck at a faster speed, slamming onto the flooring with a crunch. Gary ended up landing flat on his face, the entire front of his mech suit touching facedown. On the other hand, Little Cato managed to land on both his mech suit's hands and feet, his back slightly arched upwards.

The civilians standing before them just gaped for a moment. "Is that guy okay?" one of them asked warily, pointing to Gary who was still faceplanted on the flooring. The question was immediately answered as Gary jumped back onto his feet, pushing off the surface with both his mech suit hands with a flash of power and speed to do so.

"And another great smash landing from Gary Goodspeed!" he proclaimed. Little Cato merely shook his head and rolled his eyes with lighthearted sarcasm. Gary continued, "Alright, everyone come this way! We're getting you all to safety!"

_"Guys, do something about the smoke!"_ Quinn called. _"It's still making Tenebrus sparks! I can't get closer while it's still there!"_

"On it," Gary responded first, activating the device attached to his mech suit's pack. Said device emitted a widespread domelike field of strong wind that blew away the smoke, dispelling the means for Tenebrus sparks to generate while allowing complete visibility. Quinn landed her Hawk and opened the back bay door, allowing for the civilians to walk in in an orderly manner.

"Okay, everyone inside," Little Cato ushered to the people walking into the Hawk, securing themselves comfortably in the bay of the shuttle. "You're all safe now." As he watched them file on in, he decided to patch his comm privately to HUE. "Hey HUE, did you see which one of us landed first?"

_"I did,"_ HUE answered, _"but do you want the pleasant answer or the honest one?"_

Little Cato groaned, "Aw come on, seriously? No fair…" He looked at Gary, who didn't notice the Ventrexian's stare due to the concentration he held at the very moment while helping the civilians into the Hawk.

Neither of them were aware that the Crimson Light ship's scanners were picking up intense anomalous readings from the next several floors above the deck floor. HUE called out, _"Gary, Little Cato, behind you."_

"Huh?" the human and Ventrexian said simultaneously before turning around to look up at the top.

_"I'm detecting multiple strong Tenebrus signals coming from the floors above,"_ HUE informed them, _"The pulses of dark energy present are converging, making them even stronger."_ Gary wasted no time in activating his power pack again, blowing away the smoke obscuring whatever was above them.

Above was a roaring wall of pulsing, living dark energy, appearing in all its void-like nebulous glory. In front of it stood three tall figures clad in threatening armor.

They all looked angular and threatening, with features that made them resemble creatures one would see in a bad dream or in artwork for a dualist religion, mostly looking draconian. They were all consistently black, but they were separated by lines of different colors running down the grooves. One was thin and had lines of teal running on their armor. Another was large with a bulky muscular figure and had turquoise lines. The third appeared to be of a medium build with a little curvature and was decorated with magenta lines.

The teal one used streams of dark energy to create a motorcycle resembling a Motocross and then hopped on. The turquoise one did the same thing to create a four-wheeled all-terrain vehicle. The magenta one, who happened to stand between the turquoise and teal figures, directed the dark energy to web up into the shape of an extravagant-sized chair, reminiscent of an overlord's throne, and then dropped down on it, sitting with one leg crossed over the other and resting their head on one hand in a condescending slouch.

Everyone in the Crimson Light was collectively taken aback, with most bar HUE, AVA, and KVN gasping simultaneously as they quickly came to realize who exactly was there right now.


	4. Vs Mad Tenebri - Part 1 (DMolish)

_Previously…_

"_I'm detecting multiple strong Tenebrus signals coming from the floors above," HUE informed them, "The pulses of dark energy present are converging, making them even stronger." Gary wasted no time in activating his power pack again, blowing away the smoke obscuring whatever was above them. _

_Above was a roaring wall of pulsing, living dark energy, appearing in all its void-like nebulous glory. In front of it stood three tall figures clad in threatening armor._

_Everyone in the Crimson Light were collectively taken aback, with most bar HUE, AVA, and KVN gasping simultaneously as they quickly came to realize who exactly was there right now._

* * *

"That is not good," HUE spoke first. "Everyone be careful. It is the **Mad Tenebri**."

"Mad Tenebri?" said Fox. "You talking about the dark-matter terrorists?"

HUE went on, "That is correct. Most of them have already been detained and incarcerated, but their leader and both top lieutenants continued to evade authorities."

"Gary, Little Cato, listen," Quinn called to both of them, "The whole galaxy's been after the Mad Tenebri for the last 30 years. They're the spearhead for Tenebrus crimes everywhere. Now we're looking at their leader." Neither of them said anything while she was talking, their eyes still fixated on the purple figure sitting high above them. "The gear you got isn't equipped for dealing with someone that dangerous. Wait for backup!"

Little Cato's eyes narrowed. "So that's their leader, huh?"

"Little Cato!" Quinn exclaimed in a reprimanding tone.

"Quinn, just get these people out of here," Gary cut in calmly. "Their safety's our top priority. I'll look after Little Cato." Quinn looked at him for a moment and then sighed with an exasperated growl. She closed the shuttle gate and began moving the Hawk away from the site, all the civilians still safe inside.

_"Just don't do anything crazy!"_ Quinn warned over the comms.

Tribore happened to butt in on their comm link too. _"You know telling 'em that's just gonna make 'em do exactly that, right?"_

"Darn right!" Little Cato declared daringly, pointing an arm with a mounted anti-matter blaster at the three Mad Tenebri standing above. "A little puff of dark matter isn't gonna scare me off! I'm gonna get these guys, and I'm gonna get 'em so good! Come get some, you dark space demons!"

No later had Little Cato yelled that, the teal and turquoise figures on their vehicles immediately streaked off and down towards him and Gary. Gary fired at the armor-clad pair with his own anti-matter blasters, quickly accompanied by Little Cato's. The two Tenebri on their vehicles each lifted a clawed hand to shoot out blasts of dark energy. The collision between the beams shot from both sides caused a black cloud to explode between them, to which the armored figures then blew through as though it were another wall to crash down. They were both getting awfully close and awfully fast, which was why Little Cato just kept on shooting. However, all of his blasts were swiftly knocked away with a few dark matter-charged slashes of the two adversaries swinging their claws. One blast did manage to knock the bulky turquoise one off balance, but the big armored rider immediately somersaulted back upright while still seated on the ATV and swung an open clawed hand aimed at Little Cato's mech suit. With a pulverizing swipe, the turquoise Tenebrus smashed one of Little Cato's mech suit arms off, sending Little Cato staggering.

"Little Cato!" Gary shouted, immediately turning back to fire his blasters at the other armored enemy, the teal one. The teal Tenebrus swung left and right, directing the bike they were riding on to avoid Gary's shots. Gary directed both blasters forward, charging up the next shot for a combined super shot. He managed to fire a bigger and more powerful beam, but the teal one swiftly jumped with their bike over said beam just as it fired into the floor while shooting their own beams at Gary's blast to create another smoke screen. Gary took to using the pack on his mech suit's back to blow the smoke away, but there wasn't enough time before the teal one dove straight for him, giving a clawed swipe of their own that knocked away the pack, making Gary stumble a bit as well. He looked back at Little Cato to see that he still wasn't doing so well.

Little Cato was desperately shooting at the turquoise Tenebrus with his remaining mech arm, but also had to use it to try and parry the incoming strikes. He even had to resort to sticking one of his real arms outside the control seat to shoot with a smaller handheld anti-matter pistol he kept holstered for emergencies like this. It already didn't help that the turquoise one didn't give him any time at all to properly juggle both these things. Before he knew it, the turquoise one zoomed right behind him and destroyed his other mech arm, leaving Little Cato's mech suit completely armless.

Gary knew things absolutely went from bad to worse. Taking his attention off the teal Tenebrus, he heaved himself in Little Cato's direction, running as fast as he could towards the Ventrexian and placing himself in front of him protectively.

"Gary, what are you doing?" Little Cato protested.

"Getting you out of this pickle!" Gary answered as clearly as he could over the noise. He raised his dual blasters and tried to shoot at both the turquoise and teal Tenebri, whom he now had two moving targets to deal with.

That went as well as one would expect. As he tried to shoot on one side to another, the two armored enemies sideswiped Gary back and forth multiple times, picking off his arms one slash at a time until he too was armless. Gary resorted to taking out his own anti-matter pistol, which prompted the teal one to swing their claws under him, destroying the legs of his mech suit. Gary tumbled out and onto the floor, his body laid completely vulnerable while still holding on to his pistol.

"GARY!" Little Cato cried, crouching down with what was left of his mech suit to shield the blond. At the same time, he couldn't ignore the taunting laughter of the two armored Tenebri circling around him and Gary in their vehicles, surrounding them both in flaming trails of teal and turquoise ether. He could even make out some of their own verbal taunts, ones like:

_"That all you got? Boy, what talkers!"_

_"So much for anti-Tenebrus fighters, Crimson Kittens!"_

* * *

At the same time, Quinn and the rest of the crew had just witnessed what happened on the monitors back on the main ship after regrouping.

"Those idiots! I told them their gear's not equipped for this!" Quinn exclaimed in apprehensive anger. "The mech suits are too heavy to compete with high-speed vehicles!" She turned, getting ready to go back out there.

"Chookity-pok," Mooncake interjected.

"Well, the mech suits are light enough to be a lot faster than regular Infinity Guard models," Tribore chipped in, "but these guys are just faster." He didn't seem perceptive to the fact that Quinn was now giving him a simmering glare in his direction.

Luckily for him, Fox jumped in with a wary smile, "He meant to say that they're too fast."

* * *

HUE patched in his comms to Little Cato. _"Little Cato, do you still see the pack that was on Gary's mech suit before?"_

Little Cato scanned the area until he spotted it lying a few feet away from him. "Uh, yeah. What of it, HUE?"

_"I added a special surprise in it for occasions like this. Just get it onto your mech suit."_

"And how do I do tha –" Little Cato didn't need to get an answer from HUE once he spotted Gary getting back on his feet and dashing towards the pack. "Gary!" he called out.

_"Man! And I wanted to use it first…"_ Gary muttered to himself despite that the noise from the attacking Tenebri drowned out his words anyways. With a dive, he managed to grab the pack and then spin around with it, flinging it into the air at Little Cato. "Don't worry, Spider Cat!" he yelled to the befuddled orange Ventrexian. "It's prepped and ready to go anytime! I just turned it on!"

To Little Cato's amazement, the pack opened and unfolded in midair, getting bigger and more complex as it revealed itself to be a whole new exoskeleton. Said exoskeleton immediately homed in on Little Cato and opened to encase itself around his remaining exoskeleton. In the span of a few seconds, he had just gotten himself a whole new and improved mech suit to operate. "Whoa!" Little Cato could only gasp. "Gary? HUE? What's this about?"

HUE merely clicked a button on his monitor. This somehow caused Little Cato's new mech suit to display a hologram displaying a series of pictures on it, prompting even both the turquoise and teal Tenebri to stop riding and stare at what was being presented.

"The sun might be gone but the moon still shines! Behold!" Gary stepped forward, holding his hands in front of Little Cato's new mech suit like a class project. "The new generation of mech-suit, the first Crimson Light-exclusive prototype of its kind ever! Built with gadgets based on private anti-Tenebrus research not even the Infinity Guard's been doing, this baby's a wild card born from the shadows! If you guys think you got us figured, you got another thing coming!"

Little Cato just blinked and looked at Gary for a second before turning back to the three Mad Tenebri. "Yeah, what he said! You bet I'm not gonna let you do whatever you want, you little shrinking violets!"

The magenta Tenebrus sitting on their throne simply looked at the display with little to no reaction. The teal and turquoise Tenebri down below seemed a little more receptive.

_"What's up with these guys?"_ the turquoise one asked.

_"Beats me,"_ the teal one responded dispassionately.

The turquoise Tenebrus opened their arms, shooting a flurry of dark energy blasts at Little Cato. _"Get smacked, kitty!"_

The blasts rapidly closed in around Little Cato, but he revved up a pair of accelerators on the mech suit's feet and streaked away before impact. He zipped left and right, dodging each and every incoming blast, in which he remained amazed at how well he was handling the new toy on the first try. When another dark blast came his way, he jumped and rolled right on its trail and then slid on it like skating on a handrail, jumping off and landing right behind the turquoise Tenebrus, grabbing them in a deadly hug.

_"What the –"_ the turquoise Tenebrus cried before they were cut off by Little Cato's mech suit spraying something. Little Cato then jumped out of the vapor cloud created by what he just did, spinning around in the air while holding on to a cube of crystal, the turquoise Tenebrus encased inside of it. Little Cato slammed the cube onto the floor, splitting it in half while simultaneously cracking the turquoise Tenebrus's armor in half as well, exposing the wearer inside. Little Cato fired three small shots at the wearer, binding the ankles, wrist, and neck with the same crystalline substance. The downed and pinned individual appeared to be a short and teal-skinned adult Hooblot, the bald head indicative of a male. He appeared to wear a pale shirt with black X-like suspenders, dark pants, and yellow boots and shoulder pads.

"That's one!" Little Cato yelled. Gary had already run towards the downed Hooblot and knelt down to secure him, keeping his pistol pointed at him the whole time.

_"Melvin!"_ the teal Tenebrus called out while looking at their downed comrade, noticing too late that Little Cato had just zipped by them and jammed a rod into the spokes of their bike's front wheel, flipping them over. "Ah!" Little Cato shot out a stream of shots that covered the teal Tenebrus in a cluster of crystalline cubes in midair. The trapped Tenebrus landed upside down onto the floor, the impact splitting them in half too, exposing the wearer to be another adult Hooblot. Little Cato fired another series of small shots to immobilize the Hooblot, noting that this one was thinner and taller than the other one. There was a head of brown hair on the scalp, indicating that it was a female and she had turquoise skin. She was wearing a pale tan single that went from her collar down to half her thighs like a skirt and a vermillion jacket that went over said single, along with an equally pale pair of boots.

"Devlin, no." the teal Hooblot known as Melvin gasped, vainly attempting to reach out to her. He could only watch as Gary moved to secure her as well.

Little Cato skidded to a stop. "And that's two!" he proclaimed, his eyes now facing the top where the magenta Tenebrus still sat on their void matter-throne. "Your turn, big boss!" He kept an anti-matter blaster held up and pointed at the reclined figure as he continued to yell. "Come on down off your high chair, why don't you? And fight me, one-on-one!"

* * *

_To be continued…_


	5. Vs Mad Tenebri - Part 2 (The Queen Bee)

"Your turn, big boss!" Little Cato kept an anti-matter blaster held up and pointed at the reclined figure as he continued to yell. "Come on down off your high chair, why don't you? And fight me, one-on-one!"

The magenta figure uncrossed their legs and stood, simultaneously carrying themselves off the ledge and descending with a forming bridge of dark energy flowing down like a river in slow motion. Both arms raised, the Tenebrus manipulated streams of dark energy as though they were just ribbons, circling them together and twisting them into the shape of a motorbike of their own. The way the figure seemed to weave the void bits together like knitting gave the impression that using their powers was easier than for most of their other fellow Tenebri. Once all the streams of dark energy had strung together, the magenta-colored Tenebrus leader was immediately seated on a motorcycle designed similarly to a chopper model, only with larger and rounder wheels and tires. Without another second wasted, the motorcycle revved and zoomed down right at Little Cato.

"Little Cato!" Gary exclaimed fearfully as he saw what was about to happen.

The ramming impact sent the Ventrexian flying backwards, even rolling a couple times before he managed to stop himself on the building's edge. Little Cato immediately pulled himself back up and took a defensive stance. "Darn you, cheater!" he growled. "You got guts attacking me in the middle of a pose!"

"Maybe now's kinda not the time for posing," Gary loudly remarked from where he stood, a few meters away from where Little Cato and Mad Tenebri's leader were. He could hear some of his teammates talking to each other over the comms.

_"HUE, what the tough-tiddy-Wampus is that toy!?"_ Quinn inquired.

_"Just a concept model I discussed with AVA. Sorry."_ HUE replied.

Little Cato maintained his stance while he watched the Tenebrus biker spin their chopper in circles, grinding the tires against the deck floor while leaving a trail of dark flames behind them. He heard HUE speaking to him, _"Try not to get too excited, Little Cato. Remain calm at all times."_

"Of course, HUE," Little Cato said in an even tone, "Calm's the best state of mind." He spotted the Tenebrus leader wagging their fingers, beckoning him to make the first move. "Okay! Now you're gonna get it!" he shouted. He threw his mech hands forward and immediately opened fire. The magenta Tenebrus pulled their bike backward, skidding forward at Little Cato only on the rear wheel while using the front wheel to block Little Cato's shots.

_"And just like that, my advice was deleted,"_ HUE lamented while the Mad Tenebrus leader rammed their bike into Little Cato.

Both parties flew over the building's edge and began rapidly falling down the side. Little Cato pulled himself upright and threw a mech hand into the wall, digging into said wall in order to slow his fall. Once he felt he slowed down enough, he activated his mech suit's power jump function to leap to the next building, staying on the trail of the rogue biker who had leapt off to that building before he did.

He instantly was already running along the side of the next building as soon as he reached it. He had to pay careful mind to avoid the destructive trail left by the biker along the side of that building he was running on, but then had the idea of using one of the bent metal support beams jutting out as a spring to propel himself forward. Carefully timing his landing onto the beam, he activated his power jump function again and used that combo to launch himself further in the air over the street below, zooming through the air so fast that he caught up to the biker in midair and managed to land a punch on their helmet. Little Cato punched the biker hard enough that they were knocked off their bike.

They both hovered in the air for a moment but then landed on a passing flying car that was going the opposite direction. Their weight made the car veer into the side of another building, to which Little Cato took the opportunity to grab the Tenebrus by the head and scrape them against the wall. A second later, the Tenebrus returned the favor by jamming a shard of dark energy into Little Cato's mech suit. The car they were riding on spun out of control and knocked them both off, sending them flying back into the burning building they had left only moments earlier.

Slamming across the flaming promenade deck of floor 108, they rolled and then bounced up the wall that held the entrance to the deck, where the leader and their lieutenants first stood on. (_Gary had to jump out of the way, already shocked out of his mind that his little Spider Cat had somehow chased the leader across the city skyline and then back here in such a short time, never mind that he was in their path just a moment ago_) Little Cato stopped his momentum with his mech hand, grabbing onto the ledge to prevent himself from being flung into the dark flames that blazed at the top.

* * *

Meanwhile back on the Crimson Light's main ship, Quinn had just left to go back to the Hawk, having made up her mind to get back out there to try and help Little Cato and Gary, or at least look for any possible remaining civilians. On the bridge, HUE and Mooncake were still watching the battle on their monitor screens, with Tribore and Fox watching from another part of the ship.

"Oh Mooncake," HUE mused, "Why is it that my helpful advice is so hard to take seriously?"

"Chookity-chookity, pok-pok chookity-pok," said Mooncake.

"Forget I asked." HUE turned back to the monitor, analyzing data in his digital brain for any sort of strategy that may help Little Cato get an early advantage in his battle. He momentarily looked over other surveillance monitors to see Tribore and Fox getting ready to go back out the airlock, then the engine room, the virtualasium, the broom closet…

_"Hey HUE, you seen KVN?"_ Fox called HUE over his comm link.

"He should be in the broom closet as he was supposed to on Gary's orders. Why?"

_"Well, I just went by the closet earlier and thought it was really quiet in there. I looked inside and saw he wasn't in there anymore."_

"That is disconcerting." HUE then contacted AVA. "AVA, where is KVN?"

"Well, he's not on the ship, that's for sure," AVA replied.

"Not on the ship? Where was he last?"

"Last I checked, KVN left through the airlock in his mech suit."

"And you let him?"

"HUE, this is KVN we're talking about. You'd do anything just to shut him up."

* * *

Little Cato held his ground, his eyes on the armored Tenebrus across from him, though he did notice that the damage on his mech suit's shoulder was already so severe, enough that a section of said shoulder fell off as soon as he saw it. On the other end, the Tenebrus leader lifted a hand to pull in a tendril of dark energy from the flames, solidifying it enough so that they grabbed the tip and broke off a sliver to use as a sword.

"Heh, now we're talking one-on-one!" Little Cato unfolded a part of one of his mech arms to extend an energy blade out of it. He slowly and carefully walked towards the armed Tenebrus as the latter was doing the same thing. "What sick pleasure do you get from wrecking people's homes?"

The Mad Tenebrus leader finally spoke, answering the Ventrexian in a very calm, cool, and airy, yet somewhat imposing tone, _"Not our choice. The shadows are a part of us."_ As soon as both adversaries got close enough to each other, they began swinging away at each other with their weapons. The sounds of clanging pierced the air as their blades connected, flashing in curves from left to right while throwing in a few kicks as their strikes were momentarily in a stalemate. With another strike, the blades of both the Tenebrus leader and Little Cato both locked together, their users staring each other down. The leader continued, _"We break things down to return them to the void. That's just how we Tenebri are."_

"You're the one who should go back to the void," Little Cato retorted. "All you're doing is darkening everyone's day, so I'm gonna show you the light!"

_"Don't kid yourself,"_ the Tenebrus leader talked back, sounding a little more flippant as the blade-swinging continued more intensely. _"We all got our dark days. You're not helping either."_

"Shut up, you!" Little Cato swung hard with his blade that knocked back the leader a few meters. In response, the leader pulled out another tendril of dark energy from the inferno and threw it at Little Cato like a whip. Little Cato blocked it with a timed anti-matter shot.

The leader switched to generating dark energy in their hands into the shape of dual handguns that shot out a series of dark energy blasts like a machine gun. Little Cato shielded himself with the arms of his mech suit and then his bladed weapon while running at his opponent. Seeing their adversary getting closer, the Tenebrus reached into the dark fire again and pulled out a snake-shaped projection aimed at Little Cato's side, slamming it into him and sending him falling off the ledge and back onto the promenade deck.

Little Cato crashed on his back, momentarily leaving him pained and dazed, but he snapped his eyes open to watch the Tenebrus leader jumping down straight for him. He jumped away before his enemy could smash him into the floor and swung over the edge and through the windows on the next floor below. Firing up the accelerators on his mech suit's feet again, Little Cato zoomed across the flaming room, having charged up his mech suit's anti-matter blasters and shot directly above through the ceiling to blast at the Tenebrus leader standing above. The leader jumped away at the shots coming at them from below, backflipping and then reaching for the flames above them. Using their powers, they tore several metal beams from the window frames above and set them ablaze with dark fire before throwing them down to where Little Cato was below like a rain of swords or javelins.

Down below, Little Cato dodged the flaming beams left and right as they pierced through the ceiling, careful not to get caught in any of the little fiery shockwaves produced by their impact on the floor. He shot again, using his split-second view of the leader through the cracks to aim directly at them. At the same time, the leader up above threw a stronger blast from their hand at the approaching anti-matter shots, letting out an agitated battle cry. The collision of both adversaries' projectiles of energy caused a gigantic black cloud to explode and balloon across the whole deck.

The noise slightly died down and the dust had begun to dissipate when the Tenebrus leader created another dark matter sword. They then began walking to the part of the ruined deck floor where they speculated Little Cato to be in the floor directly below.

Gary stepped quietly, stealthily making his way behind the armored Tenebrus while keeping his anti-matter pistol raised and pointed at them. He watched how far and how fast the leader was moving, and once he felt he was close enough, pulled the trigger, shooting at the bigger target. The few little shots of anti-matter didn't do much, mostly amounting to just bouncing off the Tenebrus's shell. The leader stopped and then turned their head to look directly at the human.

_"Oh crap,"_ Gary whispered. The Tenebrus raised their free hand, the one not holding their sword, and split open the top layer of the deck floor below Gary with a shadowy energy-like miasma, making him fall down into the shallow hole. Then they pulled the ripped floor layer back into place, surrounding the man and trapping him up to his elbows, immobilizing him. They then turned to go on their way, not giving a care that Gary was commenting to himself, "Well, I'm out of ideas."

The Tenebrus leader walked closer to Little Cato's position, twirling their sword while doing so. They stopped in front of the hole and took a ready stance as they heard noise coming from below. The noise got louder…and out of the hole sprung a yellow orb-like robot piloting a green mech suit.

"Eeyyyy! How's it going?"

The shock of such a random and unexpected sight made the Tenebrus falter for a moment, which at the same time, Little Cato crashed through the wall on the same floor next to them and smashed into their armored body with the brunt of his own mech suit.

"KVN!?" Gary shrieked. "The hell you doing out of your closet!?"

"Stay calm, stay calm Gary," KVN answered with a pretentiously courteous tone. "I'm here to provide reinforcements." He spotted that Gary was stuck halfway in the floor, a rather tight bind. "Omigosh! Gary, you're stuck!" He then took off running towards the trapped human. "Have no fear! KVN is here! To the rescue!"

"NO! NONONO!" Gary was now wriggling with ferocity. "YOU STAY AWAY! FAR AWAY FROM ME!"

Meanwhile, Little Cato had just sent the Tenebrus staggering. Taking a little moment, Little Cato fired with his handheld anti-matter pistol again, getting in a few more useful shots even as his opponent kept trying to block them. The armored Tenebrus did a backflip and slid on the flooring to put some distance between them and the Ventrexian.

However, what caught Little Cato off guard was not any other sort of new move or trick up his enemy's sleeve, but rather as soon as they stood upright, their helmet's left side cracked open and shattered, revealing their face: a humanlike visage of light blue skin and one eye with a pink iris glaring from behind a head of dark pink hair, a wide bang of hair covering the other side. Apart from the rigid aggressive facial expression, the face looked feminine and indicative of a grown Serepentian woman.

"What the –!?" Little Cato gasped. "You're a girl?" He didn't have any time to wait for an answer as a flare of dark nebulous energy on the cracked shoulder of his mech suit caught his eye, moving like it was being controlled and tearing the rest of the shoulder apart. It moved and burst violently, instantly and progressively damaging the rest of the mech suit as it yanked Little Cato from side to side.

"Yeah?" the armored Serepentian female beneath the mask was now snarling as she approached Little Cato in a power walk, "Well, who brings a cat to a firefight?" She whipped her dark energy sword at Little Cato at every angle, hacking away at his mech suit piece by piece, breaking it apart as he could only stagger. "Get out of my way unless you got a death wish. You're lucky I'm not doing the wishing on you." She continued to relentlessly slash at Little Cato until there was nothing left of his mech suit, the Ventrexian himself laid bare sitting on the deck floor staring down the tip of an energy blade pointed at his face. "You've got no armor on now, just your own limbs and fur," the Serepentian continued, "Give up already."

Little Cato scowled for a second, but then curled his lips into a smirk. "Don't act so high and mighty, queen bee! You should know I'm…no, actually 'we' are…" he waited for it, "…a rescue team!" The moment he said that, the Serepentian was suddenly interrupted by a series of aggressively fired anti-matter shots, prompting her to turn around to face her attacker.

Approaching her at high speed, Tribore was firing with his mech suit's anti-matter blasters on all cylinders, not letting up for a second. The Serepentian was rapidly trying to block the shots with her blade while wrestling to get some space to put up a dark energy shield.

Right behind her, Fox had just finished climbing over the building's edge in his mech suit and finished with a high leap, letting out a bellowing war cry as he descended with both mech suit fists ready to smash into her. The Serepentian leapt out of the way of Fox's strike and landed onto him before jumping off.

Her escape attempt didn't last long as Quinn's Hawk blew through the smoke onto the scene, with Quinn rapidly spinning the Hawk around to collide with the Serepentian, knocking her back onto the promenade deck.

As she tried to recover from her hard landing, she was barraged by another bunch of anti-matter shots coming from a now-freed Gary who was running at her and shooting at the same time, with KVN right behind him shooting at her as well.

The Serepentian moved to try and flee another direction, but Gary managed to grab a component of Little Cato's mech suit lying on the floor and throw it in her direction, making contact with her armor and latching on tight.

"HUE!" Little Cato called out.

_"You got it, dawg."_ HUE pressed a button on his holographic keyboard to activate a command, with Mooncake uttering an excited "Chookity pok" in the back.

All the separated pieces of Little Cato's mech suit suddenly shot out threads at the Serepentian, binding her based on aiming at the component attached to her armor. Once they were all tethered to her, they reeled themselves in, not even her attempts to slash them away doing her any good. They all bunched together, encasing her inside this new shell and shut down her struggling movements with a hissing cloud of vapor as they finally sealed. She was officially stuck.

"How's that?" Little Cato taunted, carefully walking towards her with his anti-matter pistol raised and pointed at her. "That right there is our rapid nega-kinetic suppressant." He stood right in front of her and raised a foot to stomp at the casing to split it open, to which he fired his anti-matter pistol at the same time to seal the Serepentian's wrists and ankles in crystals. With the leader finally immobilized and in submission, Little Cato could finally rest easy as he took an assertive posture and continued his speech to her while surrounded by his friends. "You just got a taste of real anti-Tenebrus teamwork, courtesy of the Infinity Guard's special op-team: **Crimson Light**!"

He leaned in closer until he was almost nose-to-nose in the Serepentian's face. "You amazed now? No one ever brought a cat to a firefight because they were desperate!"

"You're not the first one," the Serepentian only glared back with a deadpan tone of voice.

"The name's Little Cato," the Ventrexian pointed at himself, "I'm the deadliest Spider Cat in Crimson Light and the Infinity Guard! Keep that in mind for any other cats you meet, Mad Tenebrus!"

The Serepentian stared back before she answered, "It's Ash. Ash Graven." **[-ASH GRAVEN-]**

The two opponents, the Ventrexian Little Cato and the Serepentian Ash Graven, continued to stare each other down, maintaining the strong gaze that they had been holding towards each other since the first moment they met and fought.


	6. Scarlet Lance

Little Cato couldn't feel any prouder of himself. He didn't think he could, but he did it: He fought the terrorist group Mad Tenebri and won. He fought the Mad Tenebri's top brass and won. He tried to capture their leader and he did.

All this time, he thought he was simply going to be just another member of the Crimson Light, just one of the Infinity Guard's lower-level subdivisions meant to clean up inconvenient messes and not receive much fanfare. But here he was, someone part of a group so small having taken down the top dog of a group so big. It was a record setter. He was taking Crimson Light to new heights.

The excitement did die down a bit when his thoughts were interrupted by Quinn pushing a hand on his fur-covered cheek to rub it. "You were way too reckless out there, Little Cato." By that time, she was already out of her Hawk and standing beside him.

"Hey, come on Quinn," Little Cato protested, "I was fine."

"Just barely," Quinn replied back. "I can't remember how many times I had a heart attack seeing you get knocked over ledges and tossed into the air, not to mention all those hits you took!"

"Quinn, relax" Gary interjected calmly and humorously, placing a hand on her shoulder. "He knew what he was doing and he's safe and a winner. Can't imagine a bigger score."

"You weren't helping either, Gary," Quinn arched an eyebrow, sighing. "You were just as eager to get into it, and you encouraged Little Cato, to boot!"

"Hey! I was watching him. I covered him long enough for him to get that mech suit on. Then he was unstoppable. Right, Spider Cat?"

Little Cato rubbed the back of his head, slightly ruffling his slicked back aquamarine mohawk. "Yeah, that new mech suit worked wonders. Just a shame it didn't last."

Gary put a hand on Little Cato's shoulder. "Hey, don't feel so bad. HUE can just make you another one and he's really good at that. Right, HUE?"

_"That suit was a third-generation prototype model."_ HUE answered over the comms. _"Being brand new, it was rather inconsiderate of you to not be more careful with it."_

"Wha –!? Hey HUE, come on! You're supposed to be on my side!" Gary cried.

"Well, didn't I just get you more data to work with? You can make a better suit that way!" Little Cato added.

"At least HUE's making more sense," Quinn muttered to no one.

* * *

While everyone was bickering, bantering, and making remarks among one another, Fox stood silently, being unable to keep himself from staring at the incapacitated Serepentian – Ash Graven – who stood a few inches away. His eyes slowly narrowed a little bit as he concentrated on examining her features. He was slightly startled by Ash snapping her gaze towards him with an agitated and annoyed look in her eye once she sensed his staring.

"What?" she huffed.

"Nothing! Just, uh…keeping an eye on you. Yeah, I got my eyes on you, Mad Tenebrus! Don't you try anything, you feel me?"

Ash took a hard step forward towards Fox, making the Tryvuulian flinch and take a little step back. "It's Ash Graven, Crimson Lighter" she semi-whispered with a soft timbre growl. "You so got to start taking names." She then turned her attention away. Fox, despite settling down after facing down an intimidating display, still couldn't help but look at her again. He analyzed her face again and again, wondering what was it he was seeing that he hadn't figured out yet.

"Hey you, uh, Graven, right?" Fox called to Ash again. Ash looked back at him with no other reaction. Fox took a little breath and then spoke to her, "Have we met before?" Ash paused.

"Hey! Quit bothering boss, you creep!" the teal-skinned Hooblot named Melvin yelled at him, with all three of his eyes arched in a glare. Fox almost wanted to glare back and point his blaster at the Hooblot for good measure, but decided after a split-second that he didn't need to after watching the other one, the turquoise-skinned one named Devlin, bump Melvin with her bound wrists. Fox looked back to Ash.

Ash was quiet for a little while since hearing Fox's question and seeing Melvin's momentary interruption, but then looked away while shaking her head and rolling her eye, remaining silent. _'I guess that's a no, then.'_ Fox thought. _'But really, do I know her? I feel like I should.'_

* * *

The sudden and rapidly increasing sounds of spacecraft engines yanked everyone out of their thoughts and put a stop to their talking, forcing them to look up at the flying transport units approaching where they stood and descending onto the promenade deck, which was now completely extinguished of its flames. The ships landed with a loud clang despite their grace.

"What? Who –?" Little Cato exclaimed as he watched the ships carefully. The last ship to land was the biggest in its group, which was undoubtedly the leader unit.

"Just stay back," Quinn whispered to Little Cato, standing in front of him to act as a shield, "it's **Scarlet Lance**, the Infinity Guard's elite taskforce."

"That means they're more special-ops than us, Spider Cat," Gary whispered in the Ventrexian's ear.

The bay ramp descended from the bottom hull of the main ship and a figure descended down it. It was a human man, one with dark skin, no hair on his head, and having a look that was authoritative, smug, and bored all at the same time. Wearing a set of armor that slightly bulked him up but looked smaller than Crimson Light's mech suits that he still appeared recognizably human-sized, Stone walked a few meters before stopping just beside Little Cato, Gary, and Quinn.

"Superior Stone," Quinn greeted dispassionately, still standing in front of Little Cato.

"Ah, you again, Ergon," Superior Stone greeted back with even more indifference in his tone. **[-SUPERIOR STONE-]**  
"And these are the rest of your 'compatriots', yes? Hmph, nice work." Gary gave a little glare and Little Cato already decided he disliked him. Stone, on the other hand, wasn't very perceptive of the undertones. He turned to brush past them, not giving a second glance. "We'll be taking the Mad Tenebri into custody from here, if you don't mind."

He was followed by another human, only this time, it was a woman who looked distinguishably aged with pale blond hair and icy blue eyes; unlike Stone, she wasn't walking around in a mech suit. The sight of that signaled Gary's turn to make a bad-blooded scowl. The older woman didn't even turn her eyes to face Gary at the sight of his glare, instead opting to just speak to him outright to at least show him she noticed. "Hi hun, how's business?"

"Sheryl," Gary glowered without any further expression.

"I asked how's business," the woman called Sheryl neither raised her voice nor tone. "I'm sure your mum taught you better than that." **[-SHERYL GOODSPEED-]**  
She then turned back to keep following Superior Stone in front of her.

"Some mom," Little Cato whispered very closely into Gary's ear, to which Gary nodded with a droopy-eyed look.

Superior Stone had stopped walking once he stood directly in front of Ash. He looked rather pleased with himself. "Well then, time for the best part." He then signaled to his subordinate standing behind him, who happened to be Sheryl. "Goodspeed."

Sheryl stepped up front and got right into Ash's space. For a second, she was looking at the crystals encasing the Serepentian's wrists together. "Let's take 'those' off your hands now, won't we?" Immediately, Sheryl slapped on a pair of box-like devices onto Ash's wrists, shattering the crystals and containing her whole hands within them. Sheryl did the same with Ash's ankles.

As Sheryl moved on to doing that again with Ash's two Hooblot partners, Devlin and Melvin, Stone was chumming it up with Crimson Light. "It's good to see you're all working hard…even with your outdated gear." He was jauntily elbowing the frames of Fox's and Tribore's mech suits while moving around his own armor as though he were stretching muscles. "Fighting Tenebri must be backbreaking even for you low-level rescue teams in the Infinity Guard." Sheryl had just finished cuffing up all three of the Mad Tenebri, and without further ado, all the present Scarlet Lance units were returning to the ship, taking the three detainees with them. Even while getting ready to leave, Stone still wouldn't stop talking. "However," he continued, "the dealing of Tenebrus crimes are under Scarlet Lance's jurisdiction. Just go file your report, or whatever it is you do when you're at home."

Quinn and Gary were visibly displeased, but Little Cato's fur was bristling. This was supposed to be his moment and Crimson Light's moment, but that Stone guy just had to go and steal it. "You're gonna take credit for our work?" he demanded.

_"Little Cato, don't!"_ Quinn whispered harshly and fearfully at him. At the same time, Gary was in agreement with Quinn, frantically telling Little Cato the same thing, except there were no words and he was making rapid X-like hand gestures under his neck while shaking his head.

Unfortunately, Stone had heard Little Cato's outburst. He turned around to lean down and get right into his face. "What of it, Ventrexian?" he snarled. "Were you the one who caught her?"

Little Cato glared back at him even harder. "What if I was?" He didn't get an answer from the armored human. Instead, he found himself roughly taken by the neck and lifted into the air, and it wasn't slow. The hold on him by Stone while dangling above the deck floor was already putting a strain on him.

"You should know better than to exceed your authority, Ventrexian!" Stone spat. "I ought to put you under arrest!"

"What?" Little Cato strained while Quinn and Gary were being held back by other Scarlet Lance soldier from rushing at Stone, yelling at him to stop and put their friend down.

"Tera Con Alpha laws forbid civilians from involving themselves in terrorist matters. You could have caused an accident or worse, a major disaster." Stone squeezed his grip on Little Cato further. "I'm not inclined to overlook such reckless actions coming from anyone, most of all you."

"It's the Tenebri's crimes that can't be overlooked," Little Cato argued while trying to loosen Stone's grip on him with both his own hands. "I only put a stop to them!"

"You can take your objections to court!" Stone rebuffed. He could have made off to his ship with Little Cato still in hand, but luckily, he was stopped by Gary and Quinn who finally pushed their way past Scarlet Lance's troopers.

"Hey! Put him down!" Quinn yelled at Stone first. "We're authorized to deal with any Tenebrus who comes our way in case of an emergency! What happened just now's exactly the case here!"

"I'll decide if the circumstances are deemed appropriate."

"You sure about that, Stoney?" Gary butted in, "'Cause I don't trust that decision-stew you think you're making!"

Stone tried to ward them off with a look of his own, but Gary and Quinn stared him down, the looks in their eyes as furious as they were stern and protective. Sheryl stood next to Stone with her arms crossed over her chest, looking at Gary with a bored look in her eyes. Gary maintained his harsh gaze even while turning his eyes to her momentarily, though he had to push them a lot harder just to look like he was reserving a special case for her. Stone, after keeping his eyes locked on them both, especially with Quinn, huffed. "Never the one for jokes, were you, Ergon?" He released his hand from Little Cato's neck to drop him and began stomping away with the Mad Tenebri in tow.

Just as Stone had released him, Little Cato landed on the floor with a thud and rolled left and right on his back, holding his sore neck with a few coughs. Gary raced over to kneel by Little Cato's side, looking for a way to ease his Spider Cat's pains.

Devlin and Melvin had already been taken onboard the Scarlet Lance's ship, but Ash was still near the ramp, left standing where she was since Stone's altercation with Little Cato. Watching the scuffle between them and Crimson Light was enough for her to feel like commenting out loud. "Power play among teams, huh?" Ash quipped and then scoffed. "They sure are a 'professional' bunch…"

Stone whipped his head in her direction with a snarling growl all over his face, indignant that this Tenebrus, this _Serepentian_, had dared to talk about him like that. But he did immediately feel an air of satisfaction from seeing Sheryl instantly knee her in the gut, elbow her in the back onto the floor, and dropkick her up the ramp, sending her rolling into the drop bay of the Scarlet Lance's ship where her two compatriots already were.

"Well, that should teach you to watch your mouth, Tenebrus," Stone remarked, "Well done, Goodspeed." He patched into his comms as he boarded along with Sheryl. "We're taking them away, Scarlet Lance. Time to move." With that, all the ships of the Scarlet Lance ascended from the deck and began moving away and flying into the distance.

* * *

Little Cato was still sitting on the floor, rubbing his sore neck while Gary remained knelt by his side. "You okay, Spider Cat?" Gary asked him, "It's okay if you're not. That Stoney doesn't know who he just messed with." Little Cato didn't answer Gary with words, but opted to just nod to him as a means to tell him he was okay along with agreeing with what he just said. Gary put an arm under Little Cato's to pull him back up onto his feet.

"Thanks Gary," Little Cato said quietly. Gary only nodded with a little smile.

Quinn walked over to Little Cato. "He didn't hurt you, did he?" Little Cato shook his head, leaving her room to continue. "If you're still mad, I get it. Stone's just the worst." She looked out into the distance in the direction Scarlet Lance had went after leaving. "If anything, I think he was just taking it out on you."

Little Cato didn't say anything, opting to just look solemn as he gaze in the same direction as Quinn. _'This is a waste of time,'_ he thought. It was time for him and his team to go back to the ship.


	7. Well-Deserved

There was thunderous cheering down at the main plaza at the heart of Tera Con Alpha, right at the front steps of the skyscraper that stood at the very center of the city. The multiple towering crystalline spires that stood together combined to form the skyscraper itself glittered in the sunlight, amazingly without casting a shadow on the event taking place at its base. Crowds of thousands of people were gathered in front of the skyscraper's main entrance, where a stage had been built just in front of the steps, a giant screen wall standing at the back of it.

At the center of the stage, standing right behind a podium thanks to a set of steps placed behind it, was a short bald green alien wearing a dark blue robe, one that had a collar that went entirely around his neck, long sleeves, and down to his feet. Close to him was a tall hologram displaying himself over the stage for everyone in the crowd to see. Additionally, there were more of those same holograms further down the plaza for people who could not be close to the stage, even extending to screen monitor displays in the rest of the city, especially where people were gathered in indoor places.

The robed alien spoke into the mic in a confident voice. _"Allow me to introduce Crimson Light's young hero, Little Cato."_

As he spoke, the giant screen that stood behind the stage displayed a picture of Little Cato, showing him with a confident look in his eyes and a soft smile on his muzzle.

_"Thanks to his perseverance and bravery, he has brought down the Mad Tenebri for good. Let us all praise his achievement."_

Little Cato stepped forward from the side of the stage, walking to the center before stopping in front of the short green alien, close enough that he didn't force him to leave his spot on the platform behind the podium. He stood still as the alien attached a medal to his shirt. Once he was finished, the little alien spoke to Little Cato quietly and privately away from the mic. "Little Cato, please keep defending Tera Con Alpha hereafter."

Little Cato nodded. "You know I will, Governor Jack. I'll keep protecting this city, just as you protected me all those years ago. You've always been a hero to me ever since you saved my life as a kid."

**[-GOVERNOR JACK-]**

_Jack already knew Little Cato personally ever since the latter was born, but it was one night that their relationship became something more. That night, before it all went down, Little Cato was only 11 and living a normal life, a normal childhood with his father, Avocato. But all of that was taken away in an instant, his home suddenly destroyed without warning in a Tenebrus attack. With no time to prepare and being unlucky to have been struck the same time as their home was, Avocato could only tell his son to get out. Fate was in Little Cato's favor when Jack happened to be passing by. The moment Jack saw the Catos' home up in flames and understood the danger its inhabitants were in, he rushed in without further hesitation. Despite losing his friend Avocato to the flames, Jack managed to get the blue Ventrexian's little orange-furred son out._

"We're all counting you, Little Cato," Jack left him with those parting words as the event continued on, the two still standing next to each other while looking at the audience and cameras.

Little Cato looked behind to see the rest of the Crimson Light crew standing at the bottom of the stage at the side, catching a glimpse of Gary giving a toothy-smiled thumbs up with two hands, Quinn giving a wink of approval, Tribore looking fiercely impressed, Mooncake bouncing in the air with glee, and Fox looking in another direction with a scowl. Little Cato could only guess that it meant a celebration was going to be in order shortly.

* * *

The little fleet of ships that composed the Scarlet Lance squadron flew over the empty and rocky landscapes of planet Yarno, passing mountain after mountain and ridge after ridge until they reached an expansive crater-like sinkhole bordered by mountains. At the center and the bottom of the crater, the deepest part of it, was a complex prison compound surrounded by a ring-shaped chasm that was so deep and wide that it appeared pitch black.

Ash, Devlin, and Melvin were being led through the main corridor to be escorted to a holding cell where they would be contained until they were to be put on trial to face punishment for their crimes as terrorists. Before they got to their cell, they were put through scanners so that the prison could record their identification. Ash was scanned as **Ash Graven**, Devlin was scanned as **Devlin Dewinter**, and Melvin was scanned as **Melvin Dewinter**. On their way to their designated cell, they could hear the news broadcast playing as it echoed down the halls:

_"The Tenebri suddenly appeared 30 years ago. Widescale mass destruction caused by dark matter-wielding mutants took a devastating toll on every world in the galaxy. But now, the Tenebrus threat is finally being driven out. Just the other day, thanks to the efforts of Crimson Light, the leader of the Mad Tenebri has been apprehended, spelling the end of the terrorist group…"_

All three of them eventually reached the cell, in which its door slid open to reveal a sight that left them taken aback: Inside the large and spacious cell were multiple individuals, people of various species from all over the galaxy, people consisting of young and old, ranging from young adults to teenagers to the elderly to even little children. But the worst part of it apart from being cuffed like the three were was that every single one of them was bandaged everywhere, any part of themselves if not all of it at once. Most were bandaged on their arms and legs, but there were others with bandages on their chests, torsos, their scalps, and even over sections of their faces. If there was anyone who had hair, there were large areas where said hair is missing, bandaged or otherwise.

The guards roughly shoved the three into the cell before they could silently gawk further, not caring if they pushed hard and suddenly enough that they stumbled to the floor. One of the guards even gave a punch. "Wait!" Ash called out but couldn't prevent the guards from closing the door.

"Hey! She said 'wait,' dang it!" Melvin hollered at the closed door, hoping the guards were still there and within earshot. "Get back he –!" _FSSHH!_ In the middle of his yelling, Melvin tried to use his Tenebrus powers again, but somehow, his cuffs automatically reacted to his powers that sprayed him and caused him to get covered in crystals. The weight of being immobilized by the crystals made him fall over onto the floor, shattering the crystals upon landing and freeing his movements again.

"Don't bother."

Ash looked to her side to find the speaker, an old man with the appearance of a little grey-green bald alien with orange-tinted goggles over his eyes and bandages wrapped around his scalp. He continued, "Any time you try, you'll just get crystallized limbs."

"Looks like it," Ash quietly commented.

"Boss," Ash heard Devlin whisper to her. Ash along with Melvin turned around to where Devlin was looking. At the far end of the cell, one person with a bandaged head sat in a corner looking empty while two more bandaged people were sitting against the wall and watching a second pair of people. Said pair of people were laying sprawled on their backs, heavily bandaged everywhere and near-motionless despite that they were still breathing.

"Dear god," Melvin gasped as he took in that sight.

"What a terrible thing," Devlin agreed with him breathlessly.

"It's exactly what they say," Ash said quietly, feeling a grimace coming out of her.

"We all believed you were our last hope," the old man from before spoke again, "but now that you've been caught too, well…"

One of the two people lying on the floor on their backs was shakily lifting up an arm to reach out to the three. "Boss," Melvin whispered to Ash to get her attention. Ash looked carefully at the person trying to reach for her, deducing said person's appearance even though there was almost little to no lighting inside the cell. Judging from the overall build and dark reddish-brown fur and head of yellow hair from under the bandages, it was a male Ventrexian. He tried to hold his hand in the air as he kept trying to reach for Ash; Ash noticed that both of his arms and legs were entirely bandaged, leading her to assume that his limbs being that damaged was why he appeared to be the only one who wasn't cuffed.

Ash skipped towards the Ventrexian's side and got down on her knees, keeping her eye on his the whole time, with Devlin and Melvin joining her. As she looked at him with desperate concern, he tried to look back at her, but appeared to even take a considerable amount of his already dwindling strength to do so, let alone hold it. He weakly tried to open his mouth to take a breath, and it took him several seconds to get even enough air. It was worse when he used his breath to try and speak.

_"…what did…we even do…to deserve this…?"_


	8. Misunderstanding

"Order up! Proton Electrolyte Zinc Moonobumps!"

A decorative potluck-like basket filled with some kind of purple-colored nuggets was placed on a table where the whole crew of Crimson Light sat, each one of them in anticipation to have a bite. The dish was apparently a specialty, unique only to the restaurant the crew was apparently at: Sal's All-You-Can-Eat Bar & Grill.

"Enjoy," the one who served them the dish said to them jovially. Evidently, that person was none other than the restaurant owner **Sal** himself. The beefy spider alien in a Hawaiian shirt was a fun character to be around despite his bug-like appearance, which likely had terrified the average arachnophobe. But as for him telling his esteemed group of customers of the day to dig in and enjoy themselves, well, they didn't need to be told twice. Everyone stuck a hand into the family-sized basket to grab at one of its crispy fried pieces of an unknown but popular meat. One bite of each of those pieces made each one of their eaters hum in delight, savoring its colorful taste. Although in Fox's case, he was biting down on handfuls of those pieces as opposed to simply one. HUE simply sat, content to watch everyone else eat, though KVN had joined in with everyone as well but could only mash the pieces against his shell; his attempt at eating and his ways of doing it had become infamously unnerving among his organic compatriots.

"Yipe!" Little Cato fanned the inside of his mouth, though he wasn't in any real pain, "Man, this stuff is just the tops, especially when it comes hot straight off the stove!"

Gary couldn't agree more. "Oh yeah, so good! I like this better than the real thing!" It did earn him a brief look from Little Cato and then a little shake on the shoulder by Quinn, who sat next to him.

"You know, they're not actually supposed to be like real Moonobumps," Quinn clarified to Little Cato as she took another bite of her piece.

"It's simply in the name," HUE clarified. "They are only called that because of their physical resemblance to the real thing. Well, that and they have the record of being exceptionally delicious that its effects are often, hyperbolically, compared to the real thing."

"Well, good to see you like the stuff," Sal happily said to the group.

"Another basket, please," Fox interjected to the restaurant owner ecstatically. He had already gone through more of the dish than the rest of the crew, so it made sense that no one objected. Sal happily obliged.

"I gotta say it again, Sal, it's cooked just right as usual," Little Cato said as he looked at his bitten piece.

"Well, you can thank Todd for that," Sal turned around to look into the inside of his restaurant, prompting the rest of the group to look in his direction as well. Near the back of the restaurant past the tables, there was a long window and counter where a brown-haired Caucasian human man stood behind it, working on another dish on the stove. He looked up when he noticed Sal looking his way, and upon noticing the group with him too, gave a nod.

The view was then blocked off by Sal having returned to their table accompanied by a dark-skinned and black-haired human woman carrying two more of the large baskets of the same order of Moonobumps. "Here you go, fellas!" he said with a small dramatic flair in his tone, which signaled the woman next to him to toss both baskets onto the table with finesse. Fox, Little Cato, Gary, and even Mooncake immediately dove into them, grabbing the pieces so fast that Quinn and Tribore had to keep their own hands away to avoid losing them. KVN tried to go for another piece as well but ended up with a pincer slapped away by HUE.

"Perfect shot, Holly, as usual," Sal said to the woman who was apparently the waitress.

The woman named **Holly** smiled in response. "Should I stay on standby, boss?"

"Come on, Holly. Call me Sal," Sal joked to her before leaning in to whisper, "but yeah, that'd be good." He then returned to normal volume. "By the way, how's Jed?"

"He's still going to school, if that's why you're asking," Holly answered with a half-smile and a hand on her hip, the other hanging at her side holding a serving tray. She got a mock-indignant chuckle from Sal in response before she turned around and went back into the restaurant to take care of other business.

Sal turned back to continue talking to the crew. "I saw you on TV earlier, Little Cato. You were incredible back there," he congratulated the young orange Ventrexian. He was looking at the giant projected TV screen on the building across the street from the restaurant, displaying recorded footage from Little Cato's award ceremony.

Even Little Cato couldn't help himself. He looked down at the medal still hanging on his shirt, holding it up a little. "Oh, this?"

Sal's expression changed to one of annoyance as he remembered the events and circumstances that led up to the ceremony and his conversation with the crew. "Man, such a pain, those terrorists," he quipped, "What are they called? 'Mad Tenebri,' right? Well, it's a relief to know their boss is in jail." He ended that statement with a smile in Little Cato's direction. In return, Little Cato looked away in modesty, the rest of his friends being mutually supportive of him like Sal was. Sal continued, "I'm sure not all Tenebri are dangerous like those guys. But they get flak from pretty much everyone because of them."

"Spoken like a true philosopher, Sal," Gary said to him, giving a wink of solidarity.

Quinn seemed to look a little bit forlorn. "The Tenebri are just misunderstood. They're not to blame for the galaxy's fears."

"It is only a mutation," HUE interjected. "There is nothing they can do about it. The question is how one uses it." He gestured to Fox. "Take Fox's passion for battle, for example." Fox nodded and hummed in agreement, since he was currently still chewing on another Moonobump.

"Well anyway, you can count on me for anyone needing rescuing in town," Little Cato chimed. "I swear it on my medal."

"We're counting on you, alright!" a person sitting at a table near the group called to Little Cato. "You know I'm safe with you, super cat!" another person sitting at the same table also joined in as well. A few passersby outside the restaurant boundaries also cheered Little Cato on. He laughed, rubbing the back of his head in slight modesty.

"But, Little Cato," HUE said as Sal walked away, "did you have to wear it here?"

"For today, it's fine," Quinn answered HUE for Little Cato, looking at the Ventrexian with approval while ruffling his mane. "Some days, a man's won the right to wear his medals with pride."

Little Cato smiled back at her. "Yeah, thanks Quinn." He looked back down to the medal. "I actually feel a lot prouder wearing it, considering Gov. Jack gave it to me too."

"Oh right. He saved your life a long time ago, didn't he?" Quinn asked him closely.

"Yeah. It happened when I was a kid." Little Cato leaned on the table and began to reminisce.

"At that time 13 years ago, Governor Jack was only a pilot for the Infinity Guard," HUE told everyone. "Thanks to his rescue of Little Cato, he and his image entered the public sphere. Later, his counter-Tenebrus research that he was discovered doing became noticed as well, jumpstarting his meteoric rise to fame and fortune. Now he is the president of Yarno's largest research foundation and is also Tera Con Alpha's governor." HUE turned to look at the other large holographic displays lining the buildings on the other side of the street, to which the rest of the gang followed his gaze. "Quite the exceptional upstart route."

Fox leaned over to talk to Gary. "Hey Gary, didn't you take care of Little Cato when he was, you know, little?"

Gary sighed, reclining on his chair. "Yup, been his guardian since we met 13 years ago, just one year before I hit 30. Kid was 11, but besides it being a favor from Jack, I really liked having Spider Cat in my life. He's pretty much been my kid since then."

"You said it, Thunder Bandit," Little Cato said softly to Gary, putting an arm around the man's shoulders. Gary returned the gesture with the same one.

"Yeah! Little Cato and Gary are a family a-go, baby!" KVN interrupted in his usual jovial tone. Gary groaned as KVN's outburst made some of the other customers turn their heads to look while Quinn apologized to them for the robot's behavior. "Just like with Gary and his mom! Right, Little Cato?" KVN's question was answered with an empty basket thrown right at his chassis.

"No, we're not!" Gary refuted. "Considering she never wanted to be, it's fair I don't have to either. I don't owe her a dang thing!" Gary was seething as he spoke. Ever since Sheryl abandoned him since his father's death, his life had never been the same. It took learning how to be an adult from scratch, but he did get some help from Jack along the way since he was a longstanding friend of his father. But Gary didn't have time to stay angry as he saw everyone, especially Little Cato sitting next to him, flinching from his outburst. "Oh, Little Cato…I'm so sorry, bud," Gary said to him in a quieter voice. "Just bad memories…" Mooncake floated over to land next to Gary, giving him comfort which Gary reciprocated.

"Well, on another note," Quinn said carefully as she interjected, "Sheryl and the rest of Scarlet Lance seem to work closely with the governor, especially when it comes to work related to the foundation." She looked at the screens showcasing the foundation's biggest and latest project involving warp engines. "No idea what exactly the foundation's researching, though…"

"Warp engines," HUE commented on the display. "Who knows if it will no longer remain a pipe dream in this generation…" The next image displayed footage of Governor Jack standing with some faceless helpers belonging to the esteemed Order of the Twelve. This made HUE comment further, "…though we would not have gone far without the Order of the Twelve, thanks to their intellect."

"Have they got a long way to go? Yes, they do." Tribore added to HUE's musings. "Why are they calling warp travel a pipe dream? Is warping like traveling through a pipe? Maybe it's like dreaming…"

"Well either way, I wouldn't have become a rescuer at all if it wasn't for Gov. Jack's help," Little Cato interjected, not letting go of Gary. "I gotta return the favor and show him I'm grateful, no matter the risks." Without Gary, Quinn, and even Fox expecting it, Little Cato looked into the restaurant and called to Sal, "Hey Sal! Need a quadruple more Proton Electrolyte Zinc Moonobumps!"

And just like that, four more giant baskets of the same order were piled onto their table. Gary was back to wolfing down another portion, Tribore simply ate, while Fox and Little Cato seemed busy trying to one-up each other in trying to eat the most Moonobumps. All the while, Quinn, HUE, Mooncake, and KVN stared uneasily at the sight before them.

"I really hope we're not splitting the bill," Quinn muttered.

"I concur," HUE chimed in agreement with her.

As the eating continued, with even Fox and Little Cato trying to pull a few pieces away from each other that they grabbed simultaneously, the whole restaurant was suddenly interrupted by the sudden loud sounds of ship engines. Everyone, the crew included, looked up to see vessels belonging to Scarlet Lance descending onto the immediate city street in front of the restaurant, dropping their ramps to allow their soldiers to descend. Many of their troopers were present and within the span of seconds, they immediately stormed the inside of the restaurant, their close presence causing many of the other people dining to move back.

"Scarlet Lance?" Gary gasped, suddenly standing up along with Quinn and Little Cato. "The heck are they doing here?"

"Nobody move!" came the authoritative voice of Scarlet Lance's leader, Superior Stone. He marched his way into the restaurant with the other troopers moving aside and Sheryl following close behind him. "Anyone who tries to do so will be deemed a Tenebrus!"

Everyone froze upon hearing Stone's threat. Sal stood still. Holly was backed against an occupied table. Todd was trying to hide behind the stove.

"Hey jerk! What do you think you're doing here?" Gary yelled as he stomped into the restaurant towards Stone. He didn't get as close to the man as he wanted when Stone grabbed him by the face.

"You again, Crimson Lighter? Why don't you stand back and watch?" Stone sneered before tossing Gary away, leaving him to fall and land on his back.

"Hey! Don't move!"

Everyone looked in the direction of the kitchen when they heard a Scarlet Lance soldier yell. Said soldier was talking to Todd, who was trying to sneak away to the storage room out of the visibility of the kitchen, shaking and sweating nervously as he tried.

"Hey!" the soldier yelled at Todd again. "I said don't move!" Todd, on the other hand, couldn't stop shaking. All it did was get more soldiers to point their weapons at him. Todd tried to not move, but when his hands accidentally brushed against a stray ladle and caused said ladle to fall off the counter and onto the floor with a clang, the soldiers got ready to fire.

"Wait! Please, don't shoot!"

The soldiers turned around to see Holly frantically begging to Superior Stone. "He's not a Tenebrus, I swear to you! Please!"

"That's enough, woman," Stone rebuffed Holly, pushing her aside as he walked towards the kitchen where Todd was. "We came here based on intel that a Tenebrus is here, but then again, dealing with Tenebrus sympathizers is a bonus." He kept his eyes on the scared Todd.

"What are you talking about?" Gary quietly demanded, now feeling perturbed.

Stone was approaching where Todd was when he was accompanied by Sheryl. "We ID'd the man, Stone," Sheryl whispered to him. "His name's **Todd H. Watson**."

Hearing that, Stone then turned to look at Todd. "Well then, Mr. Watson," he addressed the frightened cook. "Is there something you'd like to tell us…or show us, rather?"

"Please!" Holly pleaded from behind. "Don't hurt him!" But her pleas fell on deaf ears as Stone took out his own gun and pointed it directly at Todd's face, the weapon whirring as it charged up.

"Mr. Watson?" Stone said to Todd, this time more slowly and threateningly. Todd, for an instant, looked at Holly before looking back at Stone.

"I…I…" Todd looked at Holly again. "Please…I'll go with you…I'll come quietly…"

Stone looked at him for a longer moment. Then, he raised a hand for his soldiers to see. The gang, Sal, and Holly gasped. Any second, Stone was going to order his soldiers to fire right at Todd. Stone was about to bring his hand down to give the go-ahead when…

"NO! GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Everyone turned around at the sound of Holly shouting at Stone, her eyes suddenly and literally darkening.

"Wh-what's happening –?" Little Cato gasped at what he saw when he eyed the waitress when the whole room suddenly darkened. The soldiers surrounding Todd started to move and change positions very rapidly.

"STAY AWAY!" Everyone in the restaurant was suddenly knocked over by an encompassing blast of wind as waves of dark energy filled the air. The soldiers were knocked off balance if not off their feet. Civilians screamed, running, crawling, and scrambling on their feet to get out. The Crimson Light crew shielded themselves with their arms as the dark blasts persisted and intensified.

Little Cato opened his eyes and looked between his raised arms to see that the waitress Holly was throwing blasts of dark energy at the Scarlet Lance, throwing them around while trying to make her way to Todd. "She's a Tenebrus!?" he exclaimed over the noise.

Unfortunately for Holly, she didn't make it very far before she was shot with crystal-inducing anti-matter by Sheryl, stopping her attacks. The moment the chaos died down, Stone took out his weapon and fired at Holly as well, followed by the other soldiers, firing a rain of shots that pelted her nonstop until most of her limbs were covered and encased in crystals, resulting in her falling onto the floor, unable to move.

Stone cocked his gun once all of Scarlet Lance held their fire. "Got her."

"Wait, please!" Sal suddenly ran in front of Scarlet Lance, putting himself between them and Holly while Todd looked out from the kitchen in horror. "What did she do? She was just protecting her husband! She's a waitress just serving people their orders!"

"Did you know about this?" Stone asked Sal in response. Sal fell silent, as if he knew what to say but didn't want to say it.

"Boss…Sal…" Sal turned around to look down at Holly when he heard her weakly trying to speak to him. Sal raced to her side and got down to his knees to face her more closely, shortly followed by Todd.

"Holly!" Todd softly called to her, his voice trembling.

"Honey…" she whispered once she saw Todd accompany her alongside Sal. She then spoke to both of them. "It's okay. Don't worry about me…"

"Holly, no," Todd shook his head quietly, "you can't. What about Jed?"

"But…Holly, you didn't do anything wrong," Sal meekly protested as well. "You just wanted to serve people with a smile, make them happy, didn't you?

They were interrupted by the sound of Superior Stone's foot placing itself in front of them, Stone having taken a step that had him standing right over the three. "Owner," he spoke directly to Sal, "I am placing you under arrest along with the Tenebrus." He also turned to Todd, "Same with you, cook, for also being 'affiliated' with her." Stone then faced Sheryl and the rest of his squad. "Cordon off the area," he ordered.

"Wait just a minute!"

Stone was interrupted by Little Cato jumping on a table and getting right in his face. "That Tenebrus is innocent!" Little Cato stated to the Scarlet Lance leader indignantly, "and Sal and the cook had nothing to do with it!"

"Both the owner and the cook violated the Tenebrus Protection Crime Act," Stone said in response, "anyone guilty of sheltering or abetting a Tenebrus faces arrest as well." As if that wasn't enough, Stone took to grabbing Little Cato by his neck again, being sure to squeeze a little harder. "You should at least take a law class before playing the hero, cat."

"Now you hold it right there!"

Now it was Quinn's turn to get in Stone's face, her having gotten on the same table as Little Cato and getting directly eye-to-eye with him while standing over Little Cato. Gary was also with Quinn, only that he was standing on the floor instead of the table and got blocked by Sheryl standing in his way with a gun pointed at him.

"It's true that the Act exists," Quinn told Stone sternly, "but it's a law specifically designed for anti-terrorism!" She pointed to Holly lying on the floor along with Sal and Todd kneeling beside her. "These people haven't done anything to be considered terrorists!"

"The court will decide if they are terrorists or not," Stone glowered back at Quinn with a low impatient tone.

* * *

Holly, Sal, and Todd were all taken away as the restaurant was sealed off and the rest of the civilian customers were being led away. Holly had been cuffed the same way as every other incarcerated Tenebrus while Sal and Todd were cuffed normally. All three of them sat together in a row on one side inside the dropoff bay of one of Scarlet Lance's ships, remaining visible to the outside until the ramp ascended and closed the bay off.

Little Cato could do nothing but watch as Scarlet Lance's ships took off, struggling to maintain composure despite anger trying to etch itself on his face. Gary was doing the same, except he looked more solemn than angry. Quinn's eyes were closed, her brow and the corners of her lips wrinkled with frustration. The rest of the Crimson Light crew didn't say a single word.

"So the whole time, a Tenebrus was handling our food?"

Little Cato looked back to see a couple people examining pieces of food, most likely from what they ordered some time before. A man was holding up one piece from his dish with only two fingers while a woman accompanying him grimaced at said piece, holding her hands over her mouth.

"How disgusting!" the woman gagged.

The man, on the other hand, looked simultaneously outraged and in disbelief, throwing the food onto the pavement as though he was trying to make it splat as hard as he could, "How can you serve this to your customers with a Tenebrus putting their hands all over it?"

"Hey! Cut it out!" Little Cato tried to cut in.

"Little Cato," Quinn gently got his attention, snapping him out of what he was feeling at the moment. She placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm not trying to take any sides, but please don't make a mistake. It sucks, but we don't have any right to stop them."

"Yeah, she's got a point." Fox added, though he then grumbled, "…still makes me mad, though."

Little Cato struggled to remain silent, but soon after let out a yell as he tried desperately to contain his frustration. He ran over to a bike he had ridden on earlier to get to the restaurant. Getting on it, he rapidly turned it on and revved the engine, speeding away down the street to who-knows-where.

"Hey! Little Cato! Where are you going?" Gary called out, briefly trying to run after him.


	9. To Be One's Own

Back at the prison, Ash continued to sit silently alongside Melvin and Devlin, not having left the wounded and ailed Ventrexian's side since the first time she went to him. She continued to look at him carefully without saying another word. Watching him simply try to breathe was enough for her, and she even tried to keep him from raising his hand to her again and again just so he can save his strength.

"I still can't believe this even happened," Melvin whispered.

"There's no doubt about it," Ash whispered back. She looked back at the cell door which remained sealed. She looked around the rest of the cell to see the various other Tenebrus prisoners still standing or sitting listlessly against the walls, wordlessly waiting for something to happen. Her gaze momentarily fell on the little old alien man sitting near the door, with no expression detectable behind his orange goggles. She had talked with him a little while before, where she found out his name was **Clarence**.

Ash also learned the name of the Ventrexian whom she was still knelt before, courtesy of Devlin and Melvin telling it to her; it turned out that they had been acquainted with him only one other time before. His name was **Meowlapeño**.

From what Devlin and Melvin remembered from whatever they heard back then, Meowlapeño used to be a mechanic back on the city Tera Con Prime when said city used to exist; Ash wasn't sure if it was from all 30 years or just partway after the Great Galactic Blackout. Devlin and Melvin could assume that regardless, even when Tera Con Prime was no more, Meowlapeño somehow was able to continue being a mechanic well after relocating. Despite the trials faced by everyone since the Great Galactic Blackout, he persevered and was able to continue his old life into the one today. But now here he was, a Tenebrus badly damaged by the actions of the foundation.

Ash felt tempted to just end it all now. But she had to be patient.

Devlin leaned down until she was close enough to Meowlapeño to whisper into his ear. "You're going to be okay. Just hang in there a bit longer. Can you do that for us?" She waited as long as it took, paying close attention to the Ventrexian faintly shuffling the back of his head on the cell floor as he tried to give a little nod.

Ash averted her gaze and shut her eye, finally looking away after having enough of the scene. _"Dang it,"_ she hissed.

* * *

It was approaching sundown when Gary managed to spot Little Cato, having driven around on his bike going all over Tera Con Alpha looking for him. He knew Little Cato was just running away to be alone after what happened at Sal's restaurant, with Scarlet Lance and the Tenebrus waitress Holly. He admitted to himself that the whole thing sucked just as much for him as it did for his little Spider Cat, but even he couldn't tell what exactly Little Cato was feeling; he wasn't a mind reader after all.

He got a glimpse of Little Cato at one of Tera Con Alpha's parks near the city limits, sitting on a bench next to a canal meant to simulate a brook. "Little Cato," Gary called to him, but Little Cato didn't show any sign that he heard. Gary didn't care though. He went around the bench to see Little Cato staring at the water without moving a muscle, and then plopped down on the space next to him. "Ah, there you are, Spider Cat," Gary said in a half-joking tone, trying to sound cheerful for Little Cato's sake. "I was starting to wonder where you even were. I could've been hassling Gov. Jack on how I was gonna find you."

Little Cato still didn't say anything back. "So," Gary began awkwardly, "pretty nice park out near the city borders. You come here often, not just to, well, cool off?" Still nothing. About five or more seconds passed and Little Cato still remained silent, staring intently at the water flowing through the little canal. "Looking for a nice, big, fat, and juicy fish?" Gary whispered with mock seriousness. "I got one in the fridge I could pull out for you tonight. I think it's about…five days old. I heard Yarno fish that's aged for about a week are when they're the best…just soft and squishy, melt-in-your-mouth…probably just the stuff of alien skeevoids…"

Not a peep from Little Cato

Gary sighed. "Come on, Little Cato, talk to me. If it's still about Stoney boy and the restaurant, it's okay to be mad." He gently attempted to rub him on his slicked back mohawk, slowly brushing at it without totally ruffling it into a mess. "You're my Spider Cat, and if something bugs you, it bugs me too."

Little Cato sighed. "I just don't get it." He got off the bench and stood up, walking over and standing right at the water's edge. "What does Stone have against the Tenebri anyway?" He turned to walk alongside the canal, prompting Gary to get up and follow him. "I mean, sure the Tenebri cause major damage and the Mad Tenebri are responsible for a lot of that damage, but the ones I saw today were just so…normal." He stopped walking. "It's just not…right."

Gary got right beside him. "Yeah, some are just dumb and moody that way, my man. But hey, if you wanna make that problem go away, you could always tell Gov. Jack about it," he suggested.

"Yeah sure, but I don't want to stress him out," Little Cato said. "The other higher-ups already know about him saving my life, which is kinda a really big part of how he got to be governor. If I do something out-of-line, they'd think I'm using my relation with him to do whatever I want."

Gary looked at Little Cato for a moment, wondering how this Ventrexian, his Spider Cat, grew up to be such an upstanding hero. _"I guess I'm getting something right, huh Jack?"_ he thought, _"Hope I'm doing right by you, Avocato…"_ He then spoke up, getting Little Cato to lend him his ear. "Yeah bud, I get that. You know, I'm kinda like you too." That made Little Cato turn his head while Gary turned to look at some other thing in the park.

"You probably didn't know, but even before you joined us, we tended to have lots of run-ins with Scarlet Lance, which meant I kept seeing my mom a lot." Gary sighed, that solemn expression from back then returning. "And when everyone's watching, it's usually like _'John Goodspeed's wife and son are at it again'_ or _'John Goodspeed's son and Sheryl Goodspeed'_… but not _'Sheryl Goodspeed and her husband's son'_ or even _'Sheryl Goodspeed and her son', thankfully.__'_ He then looked right up at the dusk-filled sky. "Yeah, my dad's still a really big deal. But even after years of him being long gone, people still like to think I'm his cheap knockoff."

That prompted Little Cato to rapidly go around and stand right in front of Gary, who staggered a bit from the startling move. "No, Gary! You're not a 'cheap knockoff'!" he protested firmly, facing the man. "You're your own man, you're always acting like yourself, you're leading a rescue team, and…" Little Cato's face fell a bit, calming down. "…_you're my dad_. Even if you didn't turn out like your dad, I'm sure he'd want that for you."

Gary smiled melancholically, putting both of his hands on both of Little Cato's shoulders. "Thanks, bud. And I know you're your own cat too, but if you ask me, you're still both Little Cato and Avocato's son at the same time…and my son too, can't forget that," he laughed at himself a little.

Little Cato smiled back as he placed a hand on one of Gary's outstretched arms. "And you're both Gary Goodspeed and John Goodspeed's son too…dad." He then mused to himself out loud, "But wouldn't you also be your mom's son too? I mean, she's technically still your mom…"

"Let's work out the technical difficulties another time," Gary replied rapidly. "Come on, let's go home."

"I was kidding, Thunder Bandit," Little Cato half-chuckled. "By the way, you're not really gonna make that fish tonight, are you?"

"Trust me when I tell you, Spider Cat: Sometimes it pays to believe in what you hear."


	10. The Shadow Remains Cast

The cell door opened, bringing light back into the cell. Ash turned her head slightly to see a pair of guards standing outside.

"Ash Graven, Devlin Dewinter, Melvin Dewinter, get moving. You're being transferred."

All three of them glared at the guards momentarily but were in no position to give them attitude. They prepared to stand back on their feet, though not before Ash whispered to Meowlapeño, "We'll be back for you."

* * *

The three were walking down the halls again escorted by two guards, being taken back to the entrance to where they were first brought in. It was going to take a while due to how far into the prison they had been taken.

_"Melvin,"_ Ash whispered.

_"Boss lady"_ Melvin whispered back.

_"Devlin,"_ Ash whispered to the other.

_"I hear you,"_ Devlin whispered in response.

_"Let's do it."_

As they all continued walking, Ash closed her eye, focusing her attention on her hands still contained within her cuffs. She started out slow, carefully generating the familiar miasma of dark energy from her hands which instantly activated the cuff's systems to suppress them with crystals. However, even after her hands got the crystal treatment, Ash generated another aura, using her powers again. The cuffs predictably suppressed them again with crystals. Ash repeated a third time, and a fourth time, then a fifth time, and many more times, each time a little quicker and sooner than the last. In fact, she was regenerating her dark powers so fast that the cuffs couldn't keep up, her power eventually overtaking the cuffs and shorting out their systems. Ash blew the cuffs loose from her hands with a bang.

The guards standing in front of them turned around to face the source of the loud noise, finding themselves facing an Ash Graven without her cuffs on. "You –!" they tried pointing their guns to shoot Ash when she instantly zipped right in front of them and grabbed their guns by the front ends of the barrels, her hands aglow with dark Tenebrus energy.

"We Tenebri are free now," Ash declared lowly, her darkened eye holding a stare that pierced into the guards' own eyes, "I'm not letting the foundation do what they want with us anymore." With that said, she let out a blast of void matter, sending the guards flying down to the end of the hallway. She rapidly turned to Melvin and Devlin. "You guys go and free everyone and then meet me back at the hangar," she instructed the two while using another blast to destroy their cuffs and even levitate the anti-matter rifles the guards dropped to throw into their hands, "I'll hold them off!"

"Thanks, boss!" Melvin smiled as he readied himself to use his new weapon.

"You got it!" Devlin armed herself as well before both she and Melvin turned to run back the way they came, back to the cell blocks which they knew contained their Tenebrus brethren.

As soon as they left, Ash looked back to the end of the hall where she threw the two guards to see even more guards rushing in to replace them, apparently bunched together in an attempt to swarm her. Ash cocked her head and smirked with a huff. _'It's like they don't watch TV!'_ she thought as she shot a lightning bolt-shaped blast straight into the group of guards, splitting up said group and sending bunches of them on both sides of the hall, then wrapped them all up in the same nebulous miasma and tossed them in all directions – on the ceiling, floor, left wall, and right wall – before shooting them back down the same direction from where they came. When some of those guards tried getting back up along with another set of guards coming down from another direction, Ash generated walls of the same energy on both sides of her, both ends of the hall she stood in, and launched the barriers down the hall in both directions, slamming them into the approaching guards like an oncoming vehicle and pushing them away from her.

One guard, however, managed to slam a fist on a button on one wall, triggering the prison's alarm.

* * *

Meanwhile, Devlin and Melvin were racing from cell to cell, using their powers to pry open, even pull apart, each and every door. Each time they opened a door, they were greeted with the surprised faces of their fellow imprisoned Tenebri who didn't seem to expect to see two of their kind so…free.

"Let's go!" Devlin announced to all the prisoners inside. "We're getting you all out of here!"

In one newly opened cell, the old man – Clarence – was visibly gaping. "Y-you!?" Clarence stammered after having found his speaking voice again. "But how – "

"Simple science," Melvin answered for him with a proud grin. "Breaking out of nullifying cuffs is easy-peasy for boss!"

That being said, the other prisoners didn't take another second to get on their feet, carefully skipping out of their cells while looking in all directions for any guards, and they did see guards…covered in the same nullifying crystals that were originally used on them; Melvin checked the ammo gauge on the rifle he still held. One by one, the newly freed prisoners were huddling behind Melvin and Devlin.

"Well, if this new change of pace is for real, I like it," Clarence commented and then held out his cuffed hands to the two, "if you would be so kind…"

"No time," Devlin turned away, keeping her rifle pointed at every empty part of the hallway for any sign of new guards, "right now, we got a ride to catch and a friend to meet."

* * *

In another part of the prison, Ash was living it up fighting even more guards who were coming her way. She was in a more open area, a tall chamber with catwalks scaffolded above and other crisscrossed ground-level footpaths, where guards were pouring in from even more sides. They pointed their rifles at her from every direction and fired down a collective rain of anti-matter beams. In response, Ash threw thick swathes of dark energy around herself, blanketing her body in fleeting and circling curtains of void that absorbed the blasts shot at her. Right before they dissipated, Ash then blew the protective energy away from herself in every direction, sending a bubble-shaped shockwave that knocked the surrounding guards off their feet.

Ash looked in one direction to spot a turret unfolding to aim directly at her. She immediately used her powers to trap it in another bubble of her energy and with a closed fist, crushed it like a wad of crumpled paper. When another turret showed up, she did the same thing but not before forcing it to point at other turrets and even pathways where guards were running and shoot at them all, destroying a good chunk of the prison's defenses and blasting away the guards' means to get to her.

"Ha! Eat it, punks!" Ash proclaimed as she was doing it all. "Shudder under my unstoppable shadow!"

* * *

The prisoners followed Devlin and Melvin closely as they all went down the halls as quickly as they could. No one was exactly running though; due to the extent of some of the prisoners' injuries along with how little energy they seemed to have left, most were relegated to treading quickly, even power-walking at best. Devlin and Melvin tried the best they could to stay patient, only increasing their awareness of their surroundings.

"Can you all go faster?" Clarence griped, unclear if he was saying to Devlin and Melvin or his other fellow inmates.

_"Shh!"_ Devlin hissed without turning around.

Suddenly, several guards flashed around the corner, reacting quickly when they spotted the escapees. Already hearing the guards yell to one another to get them got Devin and Melvin shooting, silencing them with crystal rounds before things could get worse. It didn't go in their favor though as guards still kept trickling in. The two Hooblots kept firing away until Melvin's rifle was reduced to clicks, now completely empty. Melvin cursed under his breath when he realized this and got ready to throw his gun at the guards ahead.

"Wait, don't!" Devlin stopped him before he could throw it. "Hand it over!" Melvin briefly gave Devlin a strange look, but nevertheless tossed the empty weapon to her. Devlin held both her rifle and Melvin's in both her hands and aimed them at the guards.

Unleashing her dark energy, she channeled them across her arms and wrists, through her hands, and then around the rifles, which she pulled the triggers. Now instead of firing crystallizing anti-matter, the rifles shot out blasts of the same dark matter energy characteristic of a Tenebrus, and since they didn't shoot out crystals anymore, they didn't rely on ammo as they were infinitely replenished by their current Tenebrus user.

"Wu-hoa! New trick?" Melvin asked in awe of what he saw.

"Nah! Old trick but first time ever used!" Devlin answered loudly over the blasts she was making.

Progression towards the exit for both the Dewinters and the prisoners was getting much better this time, as the area was becoming more recognizable to Devlin and Melvin. Most of the prisoners were following close behind them very well, at least until Meowlapeño ended up stumbling, falling onto the floor despite having been supported with one of his arms over the shoulder of a fellow inmate.

"Oh, what now!?" Clarence blurted out when he and several other inmates noticed what happened. Melvin turned to notice Meowlapeño's collapse as well and immediately rushed over to the injured Ventrexian. The prisoner who had supported him the whole trip was down on one knee examining him until Melvin came over.

"What happened? Are you okay?" Melvin tried to ask him directly. Meowlapeño was too tired and pained to answer, but the inmate next to him was more than willing to explain.

"I tried to hold him all the way, but he's too injured, mostly in the legs. I don't think he can keep walking like this unless I drag him."

"Then don't," Clarence barged in again, "do we need to be planning around dead weight?"

"Hey!" Melvin growled, certain that his patience was at an all-time low at the moment. "Not everyone can run like you can! Get in front if you wanna go so bad!"

He looked back at Meowlapeño, who was trying extremely hard to push himself back onto his feet despite freezing from the pain he was feeling in all four limbs at the moment. Knowing he was running out of options and time, Melvin called out to Devlin, "Dev! We got a problem!"

Devlin paused from her shooting to run over to where Melvin was. When she saw Meowlapeño, she knelt beside him as Melvin told her the situation. For a second, Devlin scrambled her brain for what she could do. She then turned to Melvin. "Okay, new plan. Mel, you take these." She placed the two rifles she had initially been using into Melvin's hands. As soon as she did, she then went over to Meowlapeño and put one arm under his knees and the other behind his back, lifting him up to hold him in a bridal carry.

"How did you do that trick again?" Melvin asked Devlin as they switched places.

"Use your imagination," Devlin answered.

Melvin rolled his eyes as he turned back to face more guards. Though it took a moment, he recalled what he saw when observing Devlin do it, and in a short time, transferred his energy through the rifles and fired. "Ho-ho yeah! Now we're on all cylinders!" he exclaimed excitedly, now firing more frequently and with greater ferocity as he blocked the guards' access to the prisoners.

Devlin kept her eyes peeled as she stood at the back of the group keeping watch, all while keeping Meowlapeño secured in her arms. Another group of guards dashed around the corner and charged at the prisoners behind her, even raised their rifles and readying to shoot. Devlin knew she had to act now. When she saw that the guards were already getting dangerously close to firing their weapons, she did the first thing that came to mind. She threw a foot up and spun around on the other in an impromptu kick, sending a wave of dark energy flying at the guards, knocking them away just as effectively. Devlin paused momentarily, taking in the fact that she just performed a kick, used her foot, to release her powers. _"Hm, if you've got no more hands to give, use your feet,"_ Devlin thought as she tried doing some more kicks, continually using her feet to channel her offense.

More guards continued to appear, and despite their extended and persistent use of their powers, Devlin and Melvin were beginning to feel the fatigue catch up to them. Their moves were getting sloppier and the guards got bolder. Everyone was slowly becoming more uncertain about a successful escape but were then soon greeted by Ash having caught up to them, appearing to them right after having made an explosive shadowy entrance. Ash looked around to see that everyone was okay and both Devlin and Melvin found ways to successfully hold their own while defending the others.

"Good job, guys! Keep going! I'll hold them off!" Ash said to the two Hooblots as she threw another sweep of void matter at more of the guards. The amount of waves of guards never seemed to cease, but she nevertheless continued to keep fighting her way through in order to keep a clear path for the prisoners she, Devlin, and Melvin were escaping with.

Everyone managed to reach the final stretch when Ash was stopped by the sight of a security vehicle, one that was a little larger than the hallway everyone was running in, suddenly zipping in and squeezing through the passageway. It seemed that prison security was now getting desperate in their attempts to mow Ash down. (_not that she could blame them; they were, after all, dealing with the leader of Mad Tenebri_)

"Geez, are you guys for real?" Ash scoffed out loud before taking off into a sprint, running directly head-on at the oncoming vehicle while firing several little blasts of energy from her hand. She and the vehicle got closer and closer together…and then Ash dropped down, sliding directly under it. Charging up the energy in her hands, Ash let out a substantially more powerful blast, punching a hole through the vehicle from bottom to top, sending it careening out of control and flipping over. She got back on her feet once she was clear and used her powers on whatever was left of the vehicle to tear it in half, clearing the path for the others.

"We're all clear!" Ash called to everyone. They had been hiding around the corner of the previous hallway, behind the one Ash was standing in just near the front entrance. "Let's go! Hurry!"

* * *

Everyone finally made it outside and in a short time, all got aboard the first available transport vessel that was present in the hangar. Melvin was in the cockpit commandeering the controls while Devlin was with the rest of the newly freed prisoners, with Meowlapeño still being held in her arms, in the back of the vessel in the holding bay. The door to the vessel's holding bay closed as the ship took off and moved to leave the prison. Surprisingly enough, Ash was not on board the ship, but still standing on the landing pad in the hangar.

But she wasn't staying behind.

Using her powers again to generate a dark aura around herself, Ash levitated off the ground and with a burst of explosive energy, rocketed out of the prison's hangar and into the outside world once again, flying higher and faster until she caught up with the transport vessel carrying everyone else, even flying beside it before she then overtook it and flew on ahead. All the escaped Tenebri flew off into the distance across the wild Yarno landscapes, following Ash Graven as she began to lead them to their newfound freedom.


	11. Where To Go

Outside on a scrapyard plot at the back of Crimson Light's hangar, Little Cato was trying to keep himself occupied. Standing a few meters away from a target board, he took aim with an anti-matter pistol and shot. But since he wasn't actually shooting at a Tenebrus, the shots didn't explode into crystals, merely either denting or putting holes in the target board.

Even after talking with Gary yesterday, he still couldn't get his mind off the events of the restaurant that happened earlier before the talk. It still wasn't fair that the Tenebrus, Holly, had to be arrested simply because she was of the same ilk as the Mad Tenebri, but even more unfair was that her husband Todd and her boss Sal had to be arrested too, all because they had dared to be nice to her and treat her normally like any other person. They were guiltless in being that way because it was true. In Little Cato's point of view, he could care less that Holly was a Tenebrus. He cared more that she had done nothing to deserve punishment from the law, most of all Superior Stone and Scarlet Lance.

But the past was the past, and there was nothing Little Cato could do to change that. Unless he could travel back in time or go and raid Scarlet Lance HQ to bust Holly, Todd, and Sal out himself, they were pretty much permanently out of his reach. Little Cato growled, firing out one more shot that left a cracked and shattered hole in the target board.

"I guess Gary didn't make you feel all better?"

Little Cato turned around to see Quinn walking up to him, her hands in her pockets. She gave him a little smile, but the look in her eyes implied that she was more worried about how he's been acting recently.

Little Cato sighed, "Well, he didn't really answer my questions, so I'm back to wondering."

"You're wondering why even a nice Tenebrus gets thrown around?"

Little Cato nodded, then clarifying to Quinn about his confusion as to why Superior Stone was always so aggressive towards the Tenebri.

Now it was Quinn's turn to sigh. "Stone and I...go over this again and again, too many times if you ask me." She began to reminisce. "You know, before I joined Crimson Light...heck, before I even joined the Infinity Guard, I used to have a sister."

"Oh," Little Cato responded with an empathetic tone. "You must've been close to her."

"Well, maybe not 'that' close," Quinn clarified, "but yeah, as my family, she meant everything to me and she thought of me that way too."

She shuffled around and walked towards the target board Little Cato had practiced on, brushing a hand on it. "When I made the decision to join the Infinity Guard, she encouraged me to go through with it...so long as fighting Tenebri wasn't the only reason I wanted to join. But then it was partway into my cadet training when it all changed for me, just one call telling me that my sister got caught up in a situation involving a Tenebrus."

Quinn stopped talking to look at Little Cato who stayed silent the whole time, but then continued. "In a flash, I knew I would never see her again. It should've made me wanna quit...but I didn't. I kept right on going. And well, here I am."

For a bit longer, Little Cato remained speechless, unsure what to make of Quinn's backstory. He did find his voice after a few seconds. "That's...rough, Quinn. But what's it gotta do with yesterday?"

Quinn walked over to Little Cato. "Some people like Stone either just can't or won't let go of the past. They might blame the Tenebri for things that happened a long time ago, that might've made sense then but are different now." She rubbed a hand in the fur on Little Cato's head. "You told Gary about how Holly was so normal even though she was a Tenebrus, that she never did any of the things most Tenebri are accused of, that she acts nothing like a terrorist. If you believe even someone like Holly is a normal innocent person, why wouldn't there be more like her? You get what I'm saying?"

Little Cato paused, taking a moment to think about what Quinn just said to him. He slowly paused before finding his voice again. "Yeah...yeah. I think I get that. I just...I just thought of Gary and myself...and after hearing you tell me about your sister, I just didn't think we'd all be members of the same club."

Quinn smiled sadly before turning around to go back inside the hangar, leaving Little Cato alone with his thoughts.

* * *

It had been a full and long day, but Little Cato felt relieved for the lack of action over the entire shift. He was normally excited to tackle any Tenebrus issues that happened anywhere across Tera Con Alpha, but after everything that happened earlier in the day along with yesterday, he just couldn't concentrate. He ended up mostly patrolling the streets on his bike, checking every neighborhood for any smaller and more local situations, hopefully not Tenebrus-related for that time being. He did get a bit of satisfaction out of saving a kid from a bunch of bullies, though he was mostly disappointed over how easy it was since the bullies immediately backed off upon recognizing his face. He left the kid with a few encouraging words right after taking them home, so he thought it counted.

Little Cato made a stop at the same park near the outskirts of town where he and Gary had their talk a day before. He sat down on the same bench, not to brood on past events, but rather, he distracted himself by looking over some of the gear he carried with him the whole day. He had his anti-matter pistol which he kept for all Tenebrus emergencies, a pair of binoculars, and the miniature communicator that he wore so he could stay in contact with Crimson Light.

Putting his gear away, Little Cato took out one more thing from his pocket, taking as much time as he needed to examine it since the sun was just starting to go down: it was a photo of himself and Gary, taken 10 years ago. Gary looked a lot more different in the picture than he did now. In the present day, Gary was mostly the same as in the photo, except he now had a small ponytail, burn scars across a good portion of the back of his body, and his entire left arm was a mechanical prosthetic.

It wasn't the case 10 years ago.

_It was sometime after the 3rd anniversary of Gary's adoption of Little Cato that the two's relationship took a great big step, though it wasn't in the best of circumstances. At the time, Gary had two arms both made of flesh and blood, but an incident involving, not a Tenebrus, but a mechanical malfunction resulting in an explosion on the job during a Bring-Your-Kid-To-Work-Day drove him to save a then-14-year old Little Cato, shielding the boy from the blast with his own body which burned him badly to the point it costed him his left arm._

_Since that day, Little Cato felt eternally grateful to the man while feeling guilty for said man's predicament and what he had to do, finally having truly begun to see him as the same kind of father he once associated with his previous father Avocato. He made a promise to Gary of his own free will that he would one day join Crimson Light and accompany him on his missions together, and sure enough, he eventually did after years of training._

_He did get a little bit of pushback thanks to Quinn who had reservations about him joining due to reminding both him and Gary of the dangers of the job. She frequently cited Gary's loss of his arm as a reason not to join, to not jump headfirst into a potential life of danger, but in the end, it was still Little Cato's choice and Gary's trust in Little Cato that the Ventrexian won out._

For a moment, for some reason, Little Cato paused from his reminiscing over the photo. He set the photo down on his lap and looked around, looking for a disturbance. He swore that he felt something in the air, something similar to a rumble that vibrated through his chest and fur. It felt like a faint distant shockwave, presumably coming directly from above in the sky but at the same time, from the ground below. He couldn't quite pinpoint where exactly it came from as it simply felt like it came from everywhere at once. With no way of really knowing, he shrugged it off. Maybe it was just his own imagination at best or paranoia at worst.

He jumped a little bit when his communicator suddenly rang. He quickly put it on and activated the answer function, thinking that maybe Gary was calling him. It wasn't, surprisingly.

"_Little Cato, how are you?"_ came the voice of someone he wasn't expecting.

"Gov. Jack?" Little Cato's eyes widened in surprise. "I-I…didn't expect your call."

"_No, no, of course you didn't,"_ chuckled Governor Jack. _"Normally, you'd be calling me."_

"Y-yeah, yeah," Little Cato stammered a bit. "Do you need me for something, sir?"

"_No, nothing at all."_ Jack's voice then suddenly evened out, going from a jovial tone to one of slight concern. _"I called you just to ask if you were okay. I heard about the incident at the restaurant you and your friends were at yesterday, involving Scarlet Lance…"_

Little Cato's face fell at hearing again the name 'Scarlet Lance' being said in front of him. For the time being, it really was a sore spot. "Yeah, it wasn't a good time."

"_Yes, you and your friends were out celebrating your victory. It's too bad Scarlet Lance had to be working when they showed up. I just wanted to say I'm sorry for what happened."_

"Oh…well, thanks…Gov. I really appreciated that."

"_You're welcome, Little Cato. Now, if you don't have any more concerns, then I guess that would be all."_

"Wait!" Little Cato interjected a little forcefully, just in case Governor Jack was really fast at hanging up, "You said you're already up-to-date about what Scarlet Lance did yesterday, so could…" He hesitated, somehow unable to finish the statement.

"_You'd like me to put a leash on Scarlet Lance and their operations?"_ Jack tried to finish for him. _"If so, that's rather forward of you. I'll keep an eye on them if that's what you're asking, but I will let you know they were just doing their job."_

Hearing what the governor just said extinguished any sort of hopes Little Cato had of turning the tides in favor of a few particular innocent people. If the governor wasn't going to change things, then there really was nothing more to be done, all options having truly been used up. He couldn't say anything more. "Understood. Thanks anyway, gov."

"_You take care now."_ With that, Jack then cut communications, leaving Little Cato only with silence.

Little Cato put away his communicator and pocketed the photo as he got ready to leave the park. He had been out for a while and he was sure that everyone, especially Gary and Quinn, would start to get worried. He had just got to his bike when he noticed a strange reflection on the bike's windshield. He looked into the distant horizon beyond the city's borders to catch a glimpse of a wispy trail of a familiar dark purple energy streaking across the darkening sky like a comet towards the mountains. His eyes widened and he gasped, recognizing the sight all too well.

Little Cato turned his communicator back on. "Guys! Guys, are you there?"

Gary's voice was the first to sound off. _"Little Cato? Buddy! There you are! Quinn was just about ready to try and go on a hunt for you! You coming back soon, Spider Cat?"_

"I can't, Gary," Little Cato replied quietly, his eyes not leaving the site where he saw the comet-like apparition landed. "I just spotted a Tenebrus right about now. It's headed for the mountains." He was sure he heard faint gasping from the other end of the line.

"_O-okay, I guess we can't leave that alone,"_ Gary stammered a bit. _"Just tell me where you are and I'll get everyone to meet up with you."_

"There's no time," Little Cato refuted. "I don't know where that Tenebrus is headed and who knows if it's staying long?" He followed the streak with his binoculars until he pinpointed where in the mountains it landed. "I'm going to trail it. I'll keep my signal on for you to track my position."

"_You sure it's a good idea to go by yourself?"_ Gary asked uneasily. _"You don't know what kind of Tenebrus you're chasing, and neither do we."_

Little Cato got on his bike and revved up the engine. "I'll be fine. Just come find me." With that said, he sped away down the road until he was outside the city.


	12. Ashen Grave

Little Cato focused his eyes very hard and intently as he looked through his binoculars at the cave opening below. Crouched over the ledge of a cliff, the Ventrexian had his body pressed down to the ground as tightly as he could in an effort to stay hidden, even though the sun had effectively gone down at that point. He switched the settings of his binoculars to scan for Tenebrus signals, and he did manage to detect a whole group of them situated deeper in the cave he was focused on. Little Cato had no idea there were so many Tenebri in one place. He wondered if this was another population he wasn't aware of. He even questioned if the comet-like streak of energy he saw flying in the sky belonged to a single Tenebrus to begin with.

Spotting a couple of them moving outside the mouth of the cave, Little Cato put down his binoculars and held out his pistol at the ready. He waited as he aimed, waiting for the proper moment to neutralize the targets. He watched his targets…but then pulled back his gun when he realized what sort of people he was about to try and shoot.

The two were both children, very young, and seemingly no older than 10. They were also apparently wearing knee-length cloaks draped around their shoulders, likely as protection from the elements, considering they were in the mountain areas of Yarno. One child whose head was extremely bandaged looked curious enough to want to look further out while the other held them by the shoulder, seemingly warning their companion not to do that but rather go back inside the cave. The former complied and they both went back in.

Little Cato made his way to the bottom of the cliff that overlooked the cave, having made it to said cave in person. Keeping his gun held up and pointed again, he stepped inside carefully after looking inside, making sure he didn't make too much noise with every step he took. He followed the cave's main passageway, which seemed to look more like a singular tunnel, until he spotted an encompassing light up ahead. He inched closer and closer to the light until he saw the source in its entirety:

In an open chamberlike part of the cavern, there was a large campfire alit with a purplish flame, surrounded by a various number of people, varying significantly in terms of differing alien species. Like the two children Little Cato saw earlier, they were draped in cloaks and many were even visibly bandaged all over their bodies. Most simply sat around the fire, while others were on their knees and some were lying down on their sides on the cave floor. The sight of these people in such a state was almost…pitiful.

Little Cato was silently both shocked and confused on the inside. _"Are these people Tenebri?"_ was the loudest thought echoing in his mind at the moment. He had come to the cave based on signs that some of the feared Tenebri were there, and as someone in Crimson Light and by extension the Infinity Guard assigned with dealing with them, he had to come seeking them out. He had expected something more fierce, threatening, vibrant…but he had never expected to see them so withered, exhausted, helpless…

Little Cato couldn't understand how he could even think of attacking these people. He found himself slowly lowering his gun, unable to take his eyes off this display of lost personhood before him. One child, the one with the bandaged head from earlier outside the cave, turned around to see Little Cato, somehow detecting his presence. The two looked each other in the eyes, with Little Cato looking confused and the child looking slightly fearful of him.

Little Cato was too deep in his conflicting revelation to notice a hand raised behind him, positioned with straightened fingers, which then struck him on the back of his head in a chopping motion that made him react with a yelp, instantly causing his hearing to go silent and his vision to go black.

* * *

On a road leading out of Tera Con Alpha, a human man in a brown jacket, blue jeans, and a red helmet on his head was putting the pedal to the metal on his motorbike, his eyes wrestling between focusing either on the road or the screen showing a blinking blip on a topographical projection. Gary Goodspeed had difficulties with reconciling the fact that it took him a little too long to try and find everyone so he could gather them all together for a search out in the mountains. He was somewhat glad that HUE and AVA were willing to lend him their assistance over comms, but even more glad that Quinn and Mooncake joined him immediately, both of them sitting behind him on his bike. (_there was also KVN, but Gary neither asked nor wanted his assistance_)

Quinn had to remind Gary to focus on his driving. "Gary, the road."

Gary snapped his gaze back to his immediate surroundings, accidentally making the bike sway a little bit. Mooncake had to grab on to Quinn's shoulder to avoid getting thrown off. "Sorry – sorry about that," Gary said through his helmet, "It's just Little Cato…just him being out there on his own, without us or any super gear while facing maybe a dangerous Tenebrus…"

"Gary, we'll find him," Quinn reassured him. "I get you're worried. I'm worried too, but Little Cato's smart. If anyone can find their way out of a pickle, he can…" She rested her chin on Gary's shoulder before adding, "…thanks to you."

Gary smiled, though no one could see it since he was wearing a helmet. It didn't really ease his tension though. He had a gut feeling that Quinn wanted to say to him that she told him so, that the inherent danger of the job would one day cause something to happen to Little Cato, putting something between the two…possibly permanently. Of course, Quinn didn't say any of the sort, simply reassuring him out of consideration for his current feelings.

Gary wanted to look back at the tracker on his bike, but opted to ask Quinn instead. "Can you still see Little Cato?"

"Yeah, he hasn't moved," Quinn answered back, apparently using one hand to look at a miniature tracking device she had on her person. "Hopefully, his tracker stays on once we get there…I don't know how AVA and HUE could help if it didn't."

"Chookity," Mooncake remarked nervously as he held on to Quinn, the three continuing to speed away towards the mountains with only one person on their minds at the moment.

* * *

"_Boss, we're… – who's – is that…? What's – doing here?"_

"_I've dealt...can't hurt us."_

"…_got the goods…enough – everyone…"_

"–…_transport…–?"_

"…_would do."_

"_What about –"_

The world slowly came back to Little Cato, feeling his consciousness, vision, and hearing becoming more apparent to him again as he slowly opened his eyes to the sight of a slightly illuminated cave floor. He took a second to realize he was still in the cave, remembering having entered it earlier looking for Tenebri, finding them in ways he wasn't expecting, and then…

Little Cato's eyes widened at the realization of what came next. He moved to get up but was stopped by the feeling of rope tied around his wrists. He looked back to see that his hands were tied behind a rocky column. He then turned back to face the front and saw the same group of people from before still sitting around the lit fire, but it was the sight of the person sitting away from the group and right in front of him that really got his attention: the pale blue-skinned woman with the pink eye and magenta hair wearing dark clothing – a Serepentian – sat positioned facing the group while watching Little Cato from a side glance.

"You!" Little Cato exclaimed. "You're the Mad Tenebri's leader!"

"Ash Graven," the Serepentian replied matter-of-factly, "Try to memorize it when taking names, Little Cato."

"But why are – how did you –" Little Cato was silenced when he saw Ash generate an aura of nebulous void from her fingertips.

"Keep it down. We're having a meal," she quietly reprimanded the Ventrexian. Little Cato looked over to the group sitting around the fire, seeing each of them apparently eating something; some were chewing on food from bowls which they scooped with spoons, others were either sipping from bowls or cups which could have been soup or a regular drink. Somehow watching these cloaked bandaged people do that looked even more pitifully strange to Little Cato. He took another momentary glance to the bags of cans, wrapped goods, boxed goods, and other assorted groceries sitting in another corner of the cavern.

Little Cato had a hard time understanding what he was seeing. Somehow, what these people were doing made sense, but yet it didn't feel quite right to him either. "What –?" he whispered.

"What's that?" Ash's voice made him turn his head to her. She further clarified directly to his face, "What do you mean by 'what'?"

"Well, I mean," Little Cato tripped over his words, "it's just…you guys – Tenebri – you actually eat, like, real food?"

That made Ash's gaze towards him sharpen greatly. Taking the wisp of void still flaring on her fingertip, Ash wordlessly shot it directly at Little Cato's face.

In a split-second upon seeing the little flare com for him, Little Cato gasped fearfully, knowing this was going to hurt a lot. He shut his eyes tight, tensing up in anticipation for the shot to hit him directly in the face. He held his position waiting, and waiting, and waiting…He cracked an eye open to see the void-like wisp floating directly in front of his face, unmoving. He examined the thing in confusion, but also with slight curiosity as he saw every little detail, every bit of wavy and bubbling textures that described the energy swirling in that little space…then it popped, loudly. "Ow!" he cried out from feeling the little explosion hit him directly in the face. He was unharmed, but it still stung a bit.

Little Cato looked up to see Ash walk right over to him and kneel down on one knee, staring him directly in his eyes with her own, the sharp gaze not once leaving her face. "What do _you_ think we are?" she asked him in a low and quiet but mildly threatening tone. Little Cato remained silent as Ash continued, "We Tenebri are living people. Like anything that's alive, we have to eat. It we don't, we'll die."

Little Cato looked briefly at the group as Ash spoke, catching a glimpse of a black-haired and pale-skinned human woman with a couple bandages on her face, crouched next to a brown-furred and heavily bandaged Ventrexian lying on his back on the cave floor. She was supporting his head in one of her arms while holding up a bowl of soup to his lips, carefully pouring it into his mouth little-by-little.

Little Cato looked down at the cave floor, unable to look at the group nor Ash. "Sorry about that," he softly apologized, making Ash look surprised. "I just…never knew."

Ash, on the other hand, ended up looking even more solemn, switching from resting on one knee to sitting on the cave floor. She continued facing the Ventrexian but turned her head away slightly to keep watching over the group sitting by the fire. She eventually was approached by one of the other Tenebri, the old alien Clarence.

"Ash," Clarence whispered to her, "It's Shannon. It's about Meowlapeño."

Ash got up and made her way over to the fire, where **Shannon**, the pale-skinned and black-haired human woman, still sat by Meowlapeño's side, already having placed his head down on a folded up vermilion jacket that acted as a pillow. Meowlapeño, the brown-furred Ventrexian, still laid on his back, unable to move. Ash got directly on her knees and leaned over Meowlapeño, trying to look him directly in the eye. "Hang in there, Meowlapeño," she tried to assure him, "a truck will be here soon."

"A truck?" Clarence questioned uncertainly. "Can't we just keep using the flying transport? It's much faster that way."

"The flying transport might draw too much attention," was Ash's answer. "A truck's less suspicious. Devlin and Melvin went out to get one."

"But…" the woman named Shannon cut in, "at this rate, Meowlapeño might not…"

'_Might not?'_ Little Cato heard what Shannon said. From what that implied, he had a bad feeling about the fellow Ventrexian's current state. "Hey, let me help," he called out without hesitation.

Everyone in the whole group turned their heads to look at Little Cato, Ash included. "You?" she responded to him with a tone of disbelief, even sounding slightly offended. She looked across at Little Cato with a stern look in her eye. "It's because of you that he's like this."

Little Cato held his ground. "I'm a rescuer. I did emergency med care as part of my training. I got first aid equipment back on my bike I can use."

Ash looked him over for a few seconds before making her decision, "No need."

With that, she turned back to Meowlapeño while Shannon stood back. Holding the hurt cat's face in both hands, Ash carefully leaned down and gently placed her mouth over his own. She closed her eyes to focus, the connection between her and the Ventrexian emitting a soft glow. A purplish light pulsed from the two as Ash blew into him, trying to breathe life back into his currently frail body. Unknown to Little Cato watching them, Ash could feel the light inside Meowlapeño's body flickering and dimming. With every bit of energy she continuously blew into him, that light brightened just a little bit more. She kept going, refusing to stop for a break, even when she started to sweat.

"Hold on, Meowlapeño," Shannon quietly said to the hurt Ventrexian, not once taking her eyes off him. "You're almost there. You can do it."

'_Come on, come on,'_ Ash kept whispering and gasping in her mind over and over as she fought the strain and fatigue she felt creeping in. She kept right on going, breathing into Meowlapeño without stopping until she felt his light suddenly surge, prompting her to remove herself from him to see if what she did had worked. Everyone else surrounding them both all watched in anticipation, hoping that Ash succeeded in restoring Meowlapeño.

But they were betrayed by Ash's anguished expression as she looked down upon him.

Meowlapeño's eyes fluttered open for a prolonged moment despite being half-shut. He weakly kept his gaze on Ash as she still looked at him from above. Even when he noticed the saddened look on Ash's face, his eyes did not stray from hers. Slowly, his eyes gradually closed until they were shut away from the world completely, a single and final wisp of warm air leaving his lips that were faintly curled up into a little smile. His chest fell and did not rise again, and the light inside him that Ash once tried to revive shrunk and faded away completely, never to be felt again.

Shannon shut her eyes tightly and looked away, unable to focus on anything other than the anguished feeling rising from her that she began fighting to suppress.

Ash's gaze did not leave Meowlapeño as he laid still, continuing to look as though he were asleep even though everyone knew perfectly well that he was not. Ash carefully grabbed both his hands and placed them onto his chest, positioning them in a way that a human might perceive as prayer. Shortly after that, Meowlapeño began to darken, the color in his fur fading as the rest of his body slowly started crumbling into a cloud of nebulous particles that rose into the air, evaporating away until nothing remained, erasing all signs that the Ventrexian Meowlapeño once existed.

Ash stood in silence, prompting Shannon and the other Tenebri to do the same as they all looked down at the spot where Meowlapeño once laid. "From the darkness came the light – to the darkness, the light returns," Ash quietly gave an elegy, "rest in peace."

Little Cato was silent the entire time, unsure of what to make of the scene he watched unfold before him. He eventually found the will to speak again. "Did he…turn into dust?"

"He went back to the void," Ash answered morosely without turning around to face him, "the final fate for a Tenebrus."

"What do you mean?"

"The shadows inside us consume our bodies, eat away at them," Ash explained while feeling said shadows within herself, "but at the same time, they allow us to regenerate." She procured another shadowy wisp in her hand, which she held up to look at more closely, "As long as we're alive, our bodies are forever. We can stay the way we are no matter how much the shadows take us over…But once our time is up, we fade away, back to the same blackness we first left since birth."

Again, Little Cato was at a loss. "Are you serious? That can't be it."

"It's not that shocking, really," Ash finally turned in Little Cato's direction. "All living things eventually die, after all. All we can do is keep feeding the flames until we burn out. Knowing that much, we can be at peace with ourselves."

"So the darkness, the shadows, they're your only reasons for living?"

"We can't help it. We can hear their voices, hear them crying out, cries like 'Take it home!' and 'Change it back! More of it, all of it!' The drive is loud, strong, and it grows!"

The little wisp in Ash's hand blinked out of existence before it was replaced by a much larger flare of cosmic shadow erupting from the campfire that everyone stood in front of, sounding almost like a rumbling roar while enveloping all of the cave walls in a violet hue along with the Tenebri who stood before Little Cato. By that time, Ash looked more emboldened, more passionate, almost like she was making a plea.

"We don't understand them any more than you, but I know for a fact that they are alive! Listening to their calls, granting them their wishes – that's what it means to be a Tenebrus!"

Little Cato carefully took in everything Ash had said to him. He could feel the emotions, the sincerity, the spirit in Ash's words. But he still thought: if the Tenebri are driven to return everything to the void, everything that exists… "Then, what about other living things, ones that aren't you?"

"No," was Ash's reply, sounding somewhat calmer this time. "We feel the need when it comes to the physical world, but for people and animals, we know they're different. We make sure to never rob them of choice, just as our nature's not our choice either." She then took a step closer to Little Cato, looking more at ease which prompted him to have that same feeling too. "When we Mad Tenebri attack a town, we always leave a way out for anyone inside. That, we proudly choose to live by."

Little Cato looked away from Ash, sitting in silence as he felt himself feeling even more confused. On the other hand, Ash was shortly approached by Devlin and Melvin who had just arrived back.

"Boss," Devlin reported, "the trucks are ready."

"Trucks?" Ash inquired.

"Yeah," Melvin answered for Devlin, "we managed to get two more along the way. We've got more than enough room for everyone."

"Okay, sounds really good. Thanks a lot."

Devlin looked over to the campfire. "Meowlapeño…is he…?" Ash shook her head, handing Devlin back her vermillion jacket that had once been used to rest Meowlapeño's head.

"Let's go. It's dangerous to stay here too long." Ash said plainly. Devlin, Melvin, and everyone else heeded her words and packed up whatever they had before walking away towards the cave entrance. Ash watched them, waiting until they were all outside the cave before she started going the same way as well.

Little Cato noticed her steps and saw her walking away from him. "You're running away again?" he called to the Serepentian.

Ash stopped, turning slightly to face Little Cato again. "Yeah. We'll keep going as long as the foundation's still after us."

"Can't you just stop destroying things?" Little Cato tried to reason with her, already feeling bad for their situation after having just seen it. "You all could live like normal people if you did, or at least tried. Then you wouldn't have to run."

Ash looked at him. "You really think that would happen?"

Little Cato felt somewhat uncomfortable with the way Ash asked him that. "Yeah, I do."

Ash huffed in disappointment, "Then you don't know what you're talking about."

Little Cato was taken aback. "Huh?"

Ash gestured with her head to Little Cato, directing him to the empty spot next to the now lightless campfire. "Why do you think he died?" she asked, referring to Meowlapeño. "He ended up that way thanks to the experiments done by Governor Jack's foundation."

'_Foundation? Governor Jack's foundation? The research foundation he's the head of?'_ That claim hit Little Cato like a wall of bricks, his eyes widening and his face snapping back to face Ash.

Ash took notice of his reaction. "You're telling me you don't know?" She cocked her head on one raised shoulder, giving a bitter smile. "Guess the Infinity Guard's been training puppets." She faced Little Cato directly, "It wasn't just Meowlapeño. Almost every Tenebrus in the galaxy is dead thanks to Governor Jack." As she continued, she could feel her anger rising. "His foundation cuts us up and puts things into us, all for their research! He doesn't even care that we're still people too…" Her face fell at that last statement, her voice tapering off with a faint tone and a slight tremble.

"You're lying!" Little Cato exclaimed indignantly. "I know Gov. Jack! He would never do that, allow anything like that to happen!"

Ash returned Little Cato's angry claim with an icy glare of her own. "Deny it all you want." She turned back to the cave entrance and walked away.

But Little Cato wasn't finished with her yet. "Hey! Wait!" he called, trying to get her attention, but Ash still walked on, moving further and further away. He kept right on calling. "Wait! Come back! I said wait! Hey! Hey! Wait!" But his calls fell on deaf ears as Ash eventually left the cave and the surrounding area entirely.

He heard the supply trucks' engines starting up and their front headlights turn on, watching as the two vehicles containing the Tenebri departed, leaving the front of the cave and his view of them entirely, with Little Cato only able to listen to their sounds as they faded more and more into silence until he could no longer hear them at all. It was certain that the trucks holding the Tenebri were driving away into the distance, going somewhere Little Cato had no means of discerning, at least at the moment.

'_Governor Jack? Experimenting on living people? It couldn't be true. He's not that kind of person…'_

* * *

It was late at night by the time Gary, Quinn, and Mooncake got to the cave where Little Cato was. Gary and Quinn ran to both sides of the cave entrance, holding their anti-matter pistols at the ready. Mooncake floated by Gary, readying himself the same way the other two were. Gary looked to Quinn, who nodded. Gary then gave a signal to go inside, proceeding with caution. Quinn followed behind him closely while Mooncake floated on a little bit ahead of both of them. Not detecting the presence of any Tenebri, Gary and Quinn turned on their flashlights. It so happened that while they looked with their flashlights, Gary's happened to fall upon Little Cato who was still sitting on the cave floor tied to a column.

"Little Cato!" Gary exclaimed, immediately racing towards his Spider Cat. He wasted no time kneeling down and getting right to untying Little Cato's hands. Quinn also rushed in to help. "Are you okay?" Gary asked Little Cato.

But Little Cato didn't answer. He continued to stare at the ground silently and listlessly, too lost in his thoughts over what he had just witnessed a while ago.


	13. The Ties That Bring Pride

Little Cato had been given the following day off after he was rescued from the cave. Gary thought it was probably better for him that way, of course, mostly on Quinn's suggestion.

He spent most of the morning just watching the news in the apartment he shared with Gary. Specifically, the apartment was Gary's and Little Cato had simply been moved in when the former adopted him 13 years ago. Regardless, it was the one haven the young Ventrexian could stay nestled in as he began the long slog through his malaise.

By the time it got close to noon, Little Cato got restless and had already gone out into the streets just for a change in scenery. There were no kids to save from bullies this time, which meant that he was running out of ways to keep doing some real good for the day. All he had instead was time to reflect on his work in Crimson Light, wondering if everything he had done was for nothing, that he had been participating in what was really a cruel business that preyed on people for no reason other than a physical trait. He wondered if Gary, Quinn, and the rest of his friends would think the same way if they knew the truth.

Little Cato felt like he wanted to quit just from thinking back to everything he saw, mostly the scene that made him rethink why he fought the Tenebri for most of his life. He remembered the Tenebri's bodily state, the fact that they ate just like regular people did, that even children were among them, seeing the Ventrexian Meowlapeño die such a miserable death from equally miserable injuries – even the fact that he and all Tenebri could die at all. And then he got the bombshell that was Governor Jack experimenting on the Tenebri, caring nothing at all for their personhood. Everything just felt unreal to him since yesterday.

Some part of him concluded that his gainful employment with Crimson Light was just one added ingredient in, what Gary liked to call, the 'corruption stew' that was the Infinity Guard. But then another part of him argued back that Gary encouraged him and actually fought on his behalf to get him in; it was even more encouraging when he did get in thanks to Governor Jack's recommendation. It couldn't have been all bad. Why would Little Cato have got in if every arrangement made supposedly in his favor was corrupt in true nature?

Little Cato scratched his head in frustrated confusion. _"What would Quinn do?"_ he thought, _"What would Gary do? ...What would dad do?"_

* * *

"Hey dad, how's it going?" Little Cato greeted, kneeling down in front of the gravestone that marked the resting place of Avocato. An image of his face along with his name was etched into the shiny chrome material that composed the marker like a carving or engraving. "Things were pretty awesome for me a few days ago," Little Cato continued, brushing a hand across the gravestone's surface, once again feeling the happiness and pride from that time returning to him and showing up on his face, "I actually went up against the Mad Tenebri…actually, scratch that! I actually fought their leader, and guess what? I won! I got a medal from…Gov. Jack, and then we had a party…" he trailed off, ending with a sigh. "Yeah, and then…well…things got pretty…different in those same days."

He found himself looking away from his father's grave as he thought about what he wanted to say next. "Dad, were you proud of what you did, fighting the Tenebri?" He, of course, didn't bother to wait for an answer. "I joined Crimson Light so I could do what Gary and everyone else did, what you did…I thought I was signing myself up to be the hero I saw in you, fighting the bad guys responsible for tearing up the galaxy. I'm not saying you're really not a hero. I know I gave it my all in trying to be one, but…" he gave another sigh, speaking more quietly, "I found out some things, things that made me start to wonder who the bad guy really is in all this…I don't know if any of it's actually true, not yet anyway."

Little Cato then stood up and turned away from the grave. He remained wordless for a bit. "Dad, I really wish you were still here…What would you do if you were me? Would you understand the Tenebri, that they don't mean what they do but can't help it? Do I still have to fight them, because they destroy things and we protect them, that we're just too different to be able to live together?" He plopped back down on the grass, fully sitting down. "It feels like it's all crashing down."

Only the wind rustling against the trees could be heard. "I miss you, dad." Little Cato then looked directly into the engraved image of his father's face. "I know I have Gary, and he cares so much for me, doing so much to raise me, but…it's not the same without you…"

He lingered for a little bit, but a sign of movement from further away caught the corner of his eye, prompting him to look at the direction of the cemetery's entrance, seeing a familiar figure walking towards the same gravestone that Little Cato was currently in front of. "Gary?"

* * *

_Some time yesterday…_

The light from the setting sun had cast an orange tint over Avocato's gravestone, painting it with a somewhat camouflaged glint that Gary almost missed it. Gary had just arrived in front of his friend's grave marker, a bouquet of flowers held in his mechanical hand.

"Hey there, buddy," Gary greeted, sounding much more mellow than he usually was when talking to his friends. "I got these for you." He set down the bouquet in front of the marker that held Avocato's engraved image. "Sorry if these look a little too frilly for your liking, but it's a human thing, and you can roll with it…I hope." He stood in front of the grave, holding a nostalgic gaze in front of the etching of Avocato's face.

"In case you're wondering, yeah, I'm doing A-Okay." Gary snapped a pair of finger guns. "Crimson Light's been on top of the world as of late, all thanks to your friendly neighborhood son Little Cato. Little dude's got an unstoppable fire in his belly, I tell you! Really, he killed it out there, taking out a couple of top-dog terrorists and their head honcho all at the same time!" He swung a leg around while putting his hands in his pockets. "And…well, things got complicated after that. Stoney-boy and Scarlet Lance had to show up and crash the party, and then Little Cato got stuck in a rut."

Gary turned away from the grave, his face now showing a look of contemplation. "He got upset for quite a while, but I think this is the first time in a long time that I don't know what to say to him. For once, I don't know how to help." He then turned his head in a side glance back to Avocato's grave. "You know, when I talked to him yesterday, I told him if he had a problem, he could always talk to Gov. Jack. I mean, with such a high-tier friend in your pocket, why wouldn't you, right?" A tiny half-smile formed on a corner of his lips. "But then he told me that he wasn't gonna sic Jack on anyone just so he can do whatever he wants! I mean, that was really grownup of him!"

Gary then went back to the gravestone and then kneeled down in front of it, trying to make it like he was trying to look at his friend at eye-level. "So, like…you think I'm still good for Little Cato, right for him? I mean, I guess it's really late to be asking that, but still, I kinda can't help but keep wondering at times." His eyes drifted downward. "I mean, I thought Jack was gonna take care of him after you…bit it…so when he told me he wanted me to take care of the kid because he couldn't, I really thought he picked the wrong guy. Not that there was a big pool to pick from, but…I was looking after an 11-year old cat when I could barely look after myself. Still…I don't think I did too bad of a job, right?"

This time, Gary seemed to look rather pensive, looking left and right even though he wasn't in any real danger. "So what I'm saying is…what do you think I should do? And for once, I could really use a sign here, man. So maybe brush the grass if I should give him space, or blow the trees if I should try harder…or something? No?"

Of course, he was going to be met with silence again, as always. Gary sighed as he got up and ready to leave. "Well, good talking to you, bud…as always." He turned to the direction of the exit. "Talk to you later, maybe tomorrow. Yeah, I think I'll talk to you tomorrow."

* * *

_In the present…_

"Little Cato?" Gary said as he approached the grave which Little Cato was currently in front of.

"Gary?" Little Cato said right back. "Why are you here?"

Gary raised his arms in brief bewilderment. "Same reason as you, at least I think that's why you're here…" He lowered his arms again, both his normal and mechanical hands hanging loosely by his sides.

Little Cato didn't have anything to say or add to that, so he looked back at Avocato's grave. Gary went up and sat down next to Little Cato, placing a hand on his shoulder while looking at the gravestone just as the Ventrexian was.

After a bout of silence, Little Cato thought he should speak first. He turned his head to the man next to him. "Hey Gary, do you think I'm doing the right thing?"

"Right thing? What do you think you're doing wrong here?"

"Just…everything." Little Cato ran a hand through his hair. "Fighting the Tenebri, the Mad Tenebri…making the city a mutant-free place…" When he saw that Gary didn't quite seem like he was following, he elaborated further. "I know we're only doing our job of protecting the public here, but couldn't it be that we're just dealing with another kind of people, people who are just as normal as we are?"

"_Again with the deeper questions,"_ Gary thought to himself, silently praying to Avocato to give him some kind of real wisdom. He spoke to Little Cato, "Well, I guess you wouldn't be wrong. I'd think a Tenebrus who does crime isn't different from a normal person doing the same thing, but…" he took a little moment to think, "whether these guys know it or not, whether they mean to or not, whether they're trying to or not…what they're doing hurts everyone, no matter if it's harmless or harmful. If our job is to keep that from happening, we have to do it unless we let them get us hurt too."

"Do you hate them, Gary?" Little Cato asked him more quietly. He saw Gary give him that quizzical stare again. "I mean, the reason dad died was because of a Tenebrus, which was why I wanted to join Crimson Light to begin with. At the time, I was so mad, so determined to make them pay for dad's death…but it gave me so much more purpose to my life than I've ever known, and for 13 years, I loved that." That made Gary feel a little frightened for his Spider Cat. But Little Cato wasn't done. "That was, until I actually got to meet some of them, see what life was really like for them, that they weren't really that happy with how they lived even though they tried to be." He then scooted a little closer to Gary's side. "So, if you actually met a Tenebrus and talked with them, you think you'd be friends?"

Gary turned to look at his knees for a moment, putting a hand on his head to ponder what he had been asked. "Well, when I told you before that I was very much like you, I meant it. I was 12 when my dad died in the Great Galactic Blackout, and like your dad, mine went out trying to deal with the Tenebri. I guess knowing that he was dead and never coming back blacked out my world too." He did take the time to put an arm around Little Cato to pull him in a faint side hug. "I won't forget that little comment you made about my story the last time I told it to you, how we were both 'members of the same club' and all."

"I said that to Quinn yesterday too," Little Cato added.

"Oh, Quinn too?" Gary sounded really curious. "But anyway, I guess I wouldn't know what to do if I met a Tenebrus. I could try and be friends, but we'd both have to work twice as hard to make the bond stay. Considering the way things are now, it's very easy to break." He looked down at the bouquet that still lied in front of the epitaph since the day before. "We both lost someone important because of a Tenebrus. But what mattered now is that we both had someone new we could share the love with, don't we, Spider Cat?"

"You and me?"

"…and Quinn, and Mooncake, HUE, Tribore, AVA and Fox maybe, definitely not KVN…" Gary then leaned over to Avocato's gravestone just to give it a little brush-up with his fingers. "I know it's tough for you to lose your dad because I've been there, but the moment you came under my wing, I felt I had to give you the best I could give you, only what you needed and wanted. And you should know that I've had my fair share of times when I didn't think I gave enough of my best for you."

"Gary," Little Cato whispered. He took one of Gary's hands in his own. "I know you did your best. However much of your best you gave, I loved all of it. It was more than enough for me."

Gary's eyes widened a bit at that last statement Little Cato made. It reminded him of a moment when he was a child, before the Great Galactic Blackout, that he talked to his father John regarding his then-shaking confidence:

"_Just do your best, son," John gently told him._

"_What if my best isn't good enough," a little Gary asked back._

_John, Gary's father, gave a little smile. "It's good enough for me."_

_**It was more than enough for me – It's good enough for me**_

Gary looked back at Avocato's grave, feeling much more hopeful and assured than he did yesterday. He leaned into Little Cato's side while still keeping his arm around the young Ventrexian, prompting Little Cato to return the gesture. "Thanks, Spider Cat," Gary whispered gratefully, inwardly glad for Little Cato, Avocato, his father John, and himself that he didn't fail freakin' hard after all.

Both father and son continued to sit quietly, letting only the sound of the wind and trees occupy their thoughts.


	14. Shadows of Refuge

It was a long journey, at least long according to those who didn't have enough patience to last at least a day on the road. But after traveling in the trucks far enough away from Tera Con Alpha, Ash thought the hollow section of a broken overpass that rested on four towering support columns in the middle of nowhere was a good place to stop and settle down.

All 3 trucks stopped at the base of the massive columns, with Ash herself, Devlin, and Melvin getting out first and looking up at this proposed settlement site.

"Well, I think this looks homely enough," Ash remarked without taking her eye off the structure. "What about you guys?"

Melvin looked at the open spaces between the structural frames. "Wide open spaces, lots of dividers for calling your own corner home, high vertical borders…what's not to like?"

Devlin scanned other parts of the same area. "The supporting columns are totally solid and not hollow – perfect for holding up extra weight for a long time, definitely enough space for everyone…yeah, I could call this our new nest too."

Ash nodded as she heard both her friends approve the location as she thought it was perfect too. Signaling to the other Mad Tenebri members still watching the others in the trucks, everyone got out of the trucks one-by-one to stretch their legs and have a look at what was soon to be their new home.

Ash walked over to the other Tenebri who were spreading out a bit around the four-column foundation. She stood by two of them who were contemplating her choice of settlement. When they noticed her present, she lent them her ear to get their second opinions.

"Wow, that's pretty high up," the one named Shannon gasped at the complex of concrete above.

"Well, considering that we're also in the middle of nowhere with no resources in sight, that isolated elevation is overdoing it," the one called Clarence also added his fifty-cents.

"Ever the optimist, aren't you, Clarence?" Ash snarked, her eye drooping and her arms crossed over her chest. "This place is high enough that we shouldn't have to worry about intruders and we've already planned to get us gear we can use to get us resources we need." She looked back up. "But right now, the first question is how we're going to get everyone up there…"

"I got an idea!" Shannon interjected as soon as she heard what Ash said.

Closing her eyes to concentrate, Shannon generated around herself the familiar nebulous aura of dark energy that defined who she was and her kind. Without warning, she swept a little wave of that energy under Clarence's feet, pushing him off the ground, making him yelp, while trying to lift him up in the air on a little platform of solidified energy that she controlled with her hands. She tried to push him up as high as she could despite the strain, but was only able to get him 5 feet off the ground before she had to release her hold.

Ash ran to catch Clarence in her arms before he hit the ground. Right when he landed in her grasp, Shannon fell on one knee, letting out a plosive breath of exhaustion. Ash set Clarence back down, who then dusted himself off before stomping right to Shannon and getting right in her face.

"What do you think you're doing!?" Clarence yelled. "You could have maimed me, or worse!"

"Clarence, leave her alone!" Ash scolded him. "She didn't even lift you that high." She moved to Shannon after getting around Clarence. "Shannon, how many people you think you need to do a higher lift?

Shannon looked to the groups of other Tenebri standing a few meters from her, taking directions from Melvin, Devlin, and other Mad Tenebri members. "I'd say maybe…10 of us?"

Ash went over to the Mad Tenebri keeping the group assured and called for their attention, making sure to tell the message she wanted to relay to Devlin and Melvin first. "Dev, Mel, I got a plan someone came up with I want to try out with you…"

* * *

It took about half a day, but Ash and the rest of Mad Tenebri managed to get all of their kind up into the overpass space. It took the cooperation of several people combining their powers to lift each one up to the top, even going to further as to try lifting several at a time. It was somewhat tiring for some, due to either recovering from injuries sustained by the foundation's experiments or not as refined in their abilities. Ash, Devlin, Melvin, and much of the Mad Tenebri were able to lift more due to having years of experience in using their powers along with staying in good physical condition by means of being on the run from the foundation.

"Okay then," Ash assessed the current situation, "now that we've got everyone up here, we'll just need to get everyone settled in." The surrounding Mad Tenebri were already going back down to the trucks and back up again on their own, able to use their own energy since they no longer had to carry each other up again. When they came back up, they were carrying folded linens that could be used for bedding along with packs of rations for the people to eat.

Both of these resources were spread out evenly among the civilian Tenebri, though Melvin had to take extra initiative in wresting extra rations away from Clarence's clutches. Devlin mostly stuck to distributing the linens among the individuals, but also took time to set up some of them as bedding for the less physically able which included elderly or those still too injured to do much.

Ash, on the other hand, was busy accompanying her fellow Mad Tenebri up and down the overpass, grabbing the supplies from the trucks to bring to the others up above. Flying up and down was no challenge for her, though the number of times she had to do so had left her a little tired. By the time she got back up to the top with another pack of rations, she had to stop to take a little breather. Resting with her back against a supporting frame, she looked left and right to survey all the people who were making themselves busy setting up their spaces in the area.

She could see it all happening: people helping each other out with walking and putting stuff away, others exchanging the things they needed to survive and be comfortable, even some providing each other some personal care, Mad Tenebri playing tug-of-war with Clarence over the same supplies…actually no, scratch that. But all in all, she actually felt safe, free to live life just like any other kind of person – doing the things she loved, being surrounded by people who care about what's happening with her. It reminded her of the good old days, when it was just her, her parents, her sister, her brother…

Ash sighed with a growl. _"That was a long time ago…"_

Her thoughts were interrupted when she suddenly noticed a little child standing right in front of her. She briefly looked into the child's earnest stare, already thinking of asking what was the matter. But she didn't really get to once she saw the child lift out a hand to her, holding a little packaged ration. Ash lifted a hand while faintly shaking her head, telling the kid that they could keep it, but the kid insisted that she take it. Feeling almost taken aback by this act of kindness coming from someone so much younger than her, Ash did what she could – she took the ration from the kid, removed it from the wrapping…and split it in two unevenly sized halves, giving the bigger half back to the kid. They both sat together for a little while, eating a ration together.

* * *

Later when the sun was going down, things have calmed a bit. All the people were already retreating into their chosen spaces in the abandoned overpass, but Ash was still outside. She was back down on ground level, standing many meters away from the site. Her eye wandered all over the barren sand and rocky ground that surrounded everyone's new home. Ash found her attention caught by the sight of a few stray pebbles.

She could hear the voices again, feeling a strong tug at her chest and even in her arms, urging her to go right at those pebbles. She lifted a hand warily towards the tiny rocks, the shadows within her feeling like they were snaking their way through her arm and getting ready to leave via her raised hand. A void-like aura manifested in her hand, the intensity in its energy slowly climbing and becoming stronger. Ash continued to concentrate on the pebbles she was aiming at, getting poised to shoot and disintegrate it into oblivion.

"_Can't you just stop destroying things?"_

She paused.

The world was vast and filled with a seemingly endless supply of wonders, but despite that, it was still finite. Things that break down are usually returned to whence they came, but if something were to be destroyed by the powers of a Tenebrus, it just vanished, erased from this dimension forever. Ash didn't know where things went after she destroyed them, no other Tenebrus like her did, and perhaps it will never be known. She already felt long ago that removing one more thing from an ever-changing world was pointless, that she didn't understand, but what could she do? All there was to it was the drive to just erase it, with nothing to go by except that the compulsion was comparable to being told to _"unmake it"_ or _"return it to whence it came"_ or even _"take it back to the beginning"_, whatever it was supposed to mean.

She never really considered her powers to be a blessing. She convinced herself that because she could do nothing about the gift that had been forced upon her since she was young, she may as well be proud of it, take pride in it, learn how to use it well.

Ash narrowed her eye as she directed her flare of energy at the pebbles and shot, blasting the little rocks to powdered nothingness. _"It's not our choice."_

* * *

Ash returned to the overpass site, activating her powers once again to start levitating back up to the settlement. She looked up to spot two children talking to each other at the edge. She wasn't sure what they were talking about, but she deeply hoped that they weren't playing, or worse, out on a dare.

She went higher, seeing them turn to look down at having spotted her, watching her fly like they wish they could do too. She even saw them get on their knees and wave to her too, to whom she then waved back…and then one of them slipped from leaning forward.

First came a gasp, then shortly after, a scream. Ash halted in the air, throwing herself in one direction to try and move fast enough to catch the kid before they fell any further to the ground below. It would have been easy if the other kid had not slipped and fell as well trying to grab on to their falling friend. Ash grit her teeth, readying herself to use her powers to catch both, but her eye caught a third person diving down to catch one of the kids – the sight of the pale-skinned black-haired human woman told Ash that it was Shannon. Shannon was surrounded with a void-like aura of her own, streaking down with her powers to try and catch the kid Ash was currently not yet aiming for since she was focused on the one who fell first.

Without any further hesitation, Ash left that kid to Shannon while diving straight for the kid whom she set out to save in the beginning. Ash grabbed the first kid in her arms just as Shannon caught the second one, but now both had to slow down as they were still coming towards the ground at a high speed. At the rate they were falling, Ash anticipated that both she and Shannon were going to have to brace themselves for a crash landing. She tightened her hold on the kid in her arms, putting more energy into generating a stronger field around her body in preparation for impact. But both she and Shannon suddenly ended up landing in a cushion of dark energy that slowed their fall just enough that they touched the ground with a tap.

Ash and Shannon looked to see that Devlin, Melvin, and several of the Mad Tenebri standing at the top, their limbs pointed down at the ground far below with small wisps of a purple aura billowing from them. Ash could assume that they were the ones who shot out that cushioning bubble together in the nick of time. She even caught a glimpse of the other civilian Tenebri standing behind her fellow members, watching the scene. Making her way off the bubble and setting foot on the ground, Ash looked to Shannon doing the same.

"You okay?" Ash asked Shannon.

"Yeah," Shannon replied, "that was a close one."

Ash saw Shannon bend down to check her kid over for any possible injuries, prompting Ash to do the same, though not before telling her, "Great save there." That made Shannon give a little modest laugh in return.

* * *

The sky had completely darkened at that point, with pretty much almost everyone having gone to sleep. But Ash, as expected of the Tenebri's leader, waited for everyone to turn in. Until that happened, she bided her time sitting at the top of the overpass, sitting on the exposed roadway part that acted as the roof of her people's home. She killed time by playing around with a chunk of concrete, holding it in a floating cloud of dark energy as she waved it around in the air above her hand.

"You're still up, boss?"

Ash turned around to see that Devlin and Melvin were on the same level as she was. She turned back to face the horizon. "Yeah. Can't sleep until everyone else is, so why don't you guys turn in too?"

"Can't sleep either," Melvin remarked. "Knowing you're not resting after all that work is making us restless."

Ash smirked. "Well, you're gonna have to do something about that, 'cause we're gonna have to go back to the city for more supplies soon."

"Yeah, we know," Devlin said. "Still, we just thought we'd check on you. It's still been a really hard few days since we escaped from the prison, considering you did a lot of the work…"

"Yeah," Ash sighed. She paused as she looked into the distance, but then looked back to Devlin and Melvin again. "Hey guys, do you think we were meant to get our powers?"

"Huh?" Melvin raised one of his eyes. "What brought that on?" He felt Devlin hold him by the hand, seeing her shake her head at him which told him not to go that route.

Devlin stepped forward, opting to answer Ash's question. "I don't think we can ever know, Ash." Ash felt a little surprised that Devlin was forward enough to use her name, but she continued, "We got our powers without knowing how or why at all, along with our powers emerging at times we never imagined would happen. We never asked to have it, but we can't get rid of it either. It's just how we use it."

"Yeah, it's just like in that ancient human movie!" Melvin added. "It said something like, 'power' and 'duty' or something…"

Ash fidgeted for a bit, but then took one last look at the landscapes before getting back on her feet. "Thanks, guys." She turned to go to the niche path that Devlin and Melvin took to get to the top.

"Guess we'll be seeing you tomorrow then, boss?" Devlin asked.

"Not yet," Ash said. "There's just one more thing I need to do."

* * *

Shannon sat on her makeshift linen mattress, thinking over all the things that had happened in the past few days. She didn't have much time to contemplate them though, as she spotted Ash in front of the entrance to her space. Shannon rose to her feet and approached Ash. "Hey there, leader," she quietly greeted, "Something you need?"

"Well, just one thing," Ash replied. "How quick are you on your feet?"

Shannon paused at the suddenness of Ash's question. "Well, I know I'm not that hurt by the foundation's experiments," she began, "I'm well enough to do this." She activated her powers, bent her knees, and jumped, zipping a few meters up into the air and landing onto the top of the wall dividing her space from the other Tenebri. She then leapt to another concrete support frame further up and bounced to the next several ledges before returning to where Ash was, landing gracefully using her powers to slow her descent. "How's that?"

"I like it," was Ash's answer. "Really impressive for someone who only had a few days to recover from her injuries." She stepped forward, approaching Shannon until she was face-to-face with her. Shannon leaned back a tiny bit, unsure what her leader was trying to do. "Some of us are going back to Tera Con Alpha to get more stuff for everyone. It's pretty much a supply run, if you look at it."

"Yeah?" Shannon could only say in response.

That was when Ash then asked her: "How would you like to join the Mad Tenebri?"


	15. Umbra's Edge (Past) - Little Cato

**It was another new day and another new fire in some other part of the city, the crew of Crimson Light heading out once again to conduct a rescue operation. The red ship that the rescue team was well-recognized for was streaking across the skyline, heading straight for the site that was currently ablaze with purple fire, structures on the verge of collapsing, people from all around watching from afar.**

**Crimson Light's ship skidded to a stop in the air when it finally arrived, facing the scene directly. A turret unfolded from the top of the craft.**

**"_Firing instant nullifier,"_ HUE announced from his controls, commanding the turret to shoot out a stream of antimatter at the flames, putting them all out while supporting some of the weakening structures with a blossom of crystals.**

**Two people were also in the process of being dropped off from the docking bay of the ship, fully decked out in gadget-laden mech suits.**

**"_Tribore, what do we got?"_ Gary asked over his communicator.**

**"Let's see," answered Tribore as he landed on the pavement. "we got about 30 barrels of nullifier gel, a hundred thousand antimatter blasting capsules, a new geodesic lightbulb in the quarters hall…that thing scatters light on every wall…like a lawn sprinkler…on Shimmers Day…"**

**"_I'm talking about what's happening outside!"_ Gary interrupted, his patience having just taken a jarring hit.**

**"There's a whole building up to the brim in Tenebrus flares – nothing new," Tribore replied with mild annoyance as though he was offended. "The way it's going, it might collapse in a short while."**

**Fox also shortly landed next to Tribore, flexing the arms on his mech suit in an impromptu warm-up test. "Fox is on the scene! All systems go!"**

**Seeing Fox already running at the building while going full-on mission mode got Tribore spurred to try and keep up too. "Tribore Menendez is on the scene too – here first, by the way! All systems go!" he parroted similarly.**

**When they approached the front steps to the building, Gary was also outside too, standing right between them as all three faced the cosmic inferno. Holding his pistol up at the ready, Gary prepped into a runner's stance. "Alright guys, we're going in!"**

**Inside the blazing building, the three were busy fighting off living flares of Tenebric energy while they scoured the floors for trapped civilians. One flare, taking the shape of a gremlin-like creature, opened its jaws and dove forward to strike at Gary, but the blond human timely shot at it in the head with his pistol, encasing it in spikes of crystals.**

**Gary looked at the downed apparition while blowing away the vapor from the barrel of his pistol. "Now you be a good flame and stay down while we put you out," he said in a low, faux-intimidating tone, reminiscent of someone playing pretend as an action-hero. He turned back to begin shooting at more living flares coming his way.**

**At the side, Tribore was busy firing his mech-suit blasters on all cylinders at other apparitions, a little bunch of civilians standing behind him. As every shot he fired encased the blazes in crystals, he took the time to talk to the people behind him despite not turning around to face them. "Everyone, the way out's on the other side! Stay on your toes!"**

**His reassurances were cut short when he noticed the people gasping and looking upward. Tribore looked up as well to see that the upper walkway above them was starting to crumble. "Fox!"**

**"Here I come!" Fox charged, letting out a climbing bellow. Leaping forward, he skidded right between Tribore and the civilians just as a giant piece of the walkway above broke off, catching it with his arms, shoulders, and back just as it fell.**

**Outside the building, up above at the top, another group of civilians were approached by a descending Hawk. Quinn was piloting inside, using her speaker to address the group below her. _"Don't panic, everyone. Crimson Light is here."_ She directed the craft to descend onto the rooftop slowly, opening the back door to the holding bay. _"Everyone get inside the shuttle in an orderly manner."_**

* * *

**Meanwhile back on the bridge of the Crimson Light's ship, HUE was busy monitoring everyone's progress. He heard Quinn reporting to him through the comms. _"I've got everyone off the rooftop. I'm heading back now."_**

**"Understood," HUE replied, "exercise caution on your way down."**

**HUE continued to monitor the progress of the rest of the team, seeing them all in good standing. He did, however, turn around to notice Little Cato still sitting in one of the co-pilot chairs, his tail rapidly swinging left and right, a leg constantly thumping away at the floor, and his ears flattened against his head. The Ventrexian's posture indicated a state of stress, likely restraint and anticipation. HUE turned back to face the monitor, but was promptly surprised by Little Cato stomping right by his side and slamming his hand on the keyboard in an attempt to get in on communications too. The loudness from the slamming startled Mooncake who was close by.**

**"Do I get to help out yet!?" Little Cato impatiently said a little too loudly through the comms on HUE's monitor, with Mooncake nervously floating behind him.**

**Outside, Gary heard Little Cato's demanding question. He sighed, but tried to hold his own voice firmly as he felt he had to keep putting the foot down for the time being. _"No, Little Cato. We've been over this. Right now, you gotta take it slow."_**

**Joining the comms was Quinn who was still piloting her Hawk. _"Just keep watching us and study how we operate. Just think of it as part of your training."_**

**Little Cato, for sure, still felt that he wasn't up for any of that nonaction. "But –" he tried to protest, right before he saw the icons displaying his teammates' ID photos and audio wave patterns blinked off the screen. He let out a loud groan, slamming a fist on the rim of HUE's keyboard, startling Mooncake again. "Hey! I'm not done yet!"**

**"Really, can't you do anything else with that energy?" AVA cut in over the intercom.**

**HUE turned to Little Cato who was at the corner putting his hands through his mohawk. "Little Cato, I know you are just eager, but your behavior is not doing you any good."**

* * *

**_Several days earlier…_**

**"Well, everything's settled. Little Cato's now officially a member of Crimson Light."**

**Gary was accompanied by Tribore and Quinn as they stood in the spacious and decorated office occupied by Governor Jack, facing said governor sitting at his desk. The governor had called this private little meeting to discuss Little Cato's application to Crimson Light being finalized. Being a sort of special favor, Jack pulled some strings to ensure that Little Cato was accepted into the system that was the Infinity Guard, and he knew just as well that Gary wanted that for him as much as Little Cato wanted it for himself.**

**"Thanks so much, Ja – I mean, Governor," Gary said in response, that familiar twinge of excitement in his voice. "Little Cato's a smart guy. I know he'll impress you big time."**

**"No need to thank me," Governor Jack quipped humorously. "Just make sure he does well enough to impress you first."**

**Tribore was preoccupied with looking at some of the decorations in Governor Jack's office while Quinn was examining the holographic tablet that displayed Little Cato's information. "Well, from what we've seen from his assessments, he's got a high aptitude, but he hasn't done enough training." She looked over to Gary. "I really don't know about this."**

**Governor Jack opted to respond to Quinn for Gary. "Well it's no secret that Crimson Light's always been in need of more rescuers, meaning you're always open for new recruits. What's one more? Am I right?" He pressed a button that projected holographic images around the office, displaying still pictures of several armored Tenebri surrounded by destruction and chaos.**

**"Recently, the terrorist group Mad Tenebri has upped their attacks against the public. As a rescue team under the Infinity Guard, it's your responsibility to stop them. You'll need all the help you can get to observe their activities so you can act accordingly…" He focused his attention directly on Quinn and Gary, even getting Tribore to stop eyeing the deco and look at him too. "…and capture them at all costs."**

**Gary, Quinn, and Tribore descended down the front steps of the tower as they got ready to leave and go back to Crimson Light HQ.**

**"So Little Cato's going to be doing the same daredevil stunt work as us," Quinn mused out loud to Gary, "I hope you're happy."**

**"Of course I'm happy," Gary replied, not perceptive of the slight reservation in Quinn's voice. "I'm like, over-the-moons-of-the-galaxy happy. You didn't think I would be?"**

**"Gary, you're supposed to be Little Cato's guardian," Quinn refuted, "You should know better than to put him in a spot where he could get hurt or worse."**

**"Well, Gary's the leader here, Quinn," Tribore interjected, "and if he's got a vision for the kid, the kid's got a vision that can't be denied too."**

**"Well thanks, Tribore. So much for being my backup," Quinn snapped, hurrying down the steps. "One day, that vision's gonna turn into a nightmare when the leader's got a big dream and a bad team."**

**Gary flinched, the comment feeling like it may have actually stung a bit. He hurried down the steps after Quinn. "Wha –? Hey Quinn, come on," he tried to reason, reaching out his hand to her.**

**Things went off almost without a hitch during the next day. In the hangar bay of Crimson Light, Little Cato was soaking in the welcome he was receiving…to several different degrees. Gary gave him a big hug and an enthusiastic welcome speech along with a handshake. Quinn gave a more subdued but tangibly warm acknowledgement of his membership. HUE gave a simple congratulations. Mooncake gave him a hug on the face. KVN overdid his welcome. Tribore simply gave him a simple gesture of acknowledgement without really saying anything. Fox gave him the single word 'welcome' and went on his way.**

**Easing Little Cato into Crimson Light's routine was fairly easy. The only problem was how to manage and redirect the young Ventrexian's energy. He was too often too eager to get in on the action as soon as he got onto the field, with Quinn and HUE having to remind him that he was still just a rookie, that he needs time to learn how to work around the field, especially when it involved the Tenebri.**

**Surprisingly enough for everyone, even for Quinn and Little Cato himself, Gary agreed with Quinn's thinking. He only succeeded in getting Little Cato to agree for so long thanks to him being, for all intents and purposes, his dad. Though that didn't stop Little Cato from feeling the urge to butt heads with him the more days that went by.**

* * *

**_Present day…_**

**Little Cato was back on the co-pilot's seat, fidgeting more intensely than ever. The pent-up energy had already crept up to his facial expressions and threatened to explode from him like it were a ticking time bomb of its own.**

**"I can solve outlasting problems out in the field, so how can I not solve this?" HUE remarked as he was unable to ignore the scene Little Cato was making behind him.**

**"Chookity chookity," Mooncake sounded in agreement.**

**"Maybe it's time you got some hands-on training of your own," AVA suggested.**

**Back in the building, Gary, Tribore, and Fox were still in the middle of escorting the civilians to the exit when they were interrupted by a blast of dark energy emanating from the next floor above. All three turned to look up to see a pair of menacing armored Tenebri standing above, looking down at them with their visors that resembled a malevolent grin.**

**"Oh geez! You're the Mad Tenebri, aren't you?" Gary exclaimed.**

**"_That's right!"_ the massive one decorated in turquoise lines answered. _"Our shadows are the blackest in the galaxy!"_**

**"_You'll never stop us from conquering the light!"_ the slender one with teal lines joined in. _"But you can try anyway, little rescuers!"_**

**The two of them then started siphoning the surrounding flares of burning darkness into themselves, generating a growing bubble of nebulous void that released a wave of black auras that somehow proved blinding to the three men of Crimson Light down below, forcing them to shield their eyes. By the time they looked back up, the two Tenebri were gone.**

* * *

**"_They're hiding themselves in the flares!"_ Gary informed everyone over the comms, including HUE, Mooncake, and Little Cato still on the ship's bridge. _"Just keep trying to put them out!"_**

**HUE examined some more analyzed scans on his monitor. "Oh dear, that's not good…"**

**Hearing that made Little Cato rush back to HUE's side, making sure to watch for Mooncake this time. "What do you mean? What is it?" he asked the robot as he leaned in.**

**"The data I extracted from the building's warehouse list specify large amounts of combustible substances stored in the central levels. Also…"**

**The monitor switched displays to show live surveillance footage of a room containing said combustible substances…with a lone Ventrexian banging at a sealed exit door.**

**"Someone's still trapped?" Little Cato gasped. "Dang it!" Without hesitation, he turned to the door at the back of the bridge, opening it to exit.**

**"Little Cato," HUE took notice, "What are you doing?"**

**"Gary and the others are tied up at the moment, so they can't go anywhere." Little Cato had just exited the bridge and was proceeding down the hall.**

**HUE had stepped outside the bridge's door to observe Little Cato heading to the airlock. "So you are going to conduct a rescue operation? Even if you go, how can you do it successfully without any rescue gear to equip yourself with?"**

**"You'll see." Little Cato replied.**

* * *

**Back on the scene, Gary had just finished escorting all the available civilians outside the building while Tribore and Fox continued to suppress the surrounding flares with crystals. He ended up patching in with HUE when he was called by the robot on his communicator. His eyes widened when he heard the report.**

**"What!? But how's he supposed to do that?"**

* * *

**At another part of the building, Little Cato braced himself, holding a grappling device in one hand at the ready and an anti-matter pistol in his other hand along with a canister strapped on his back. His entire body was drenched in a viscous purple liquid.**

**"This is Little Cato, dispatching under Crimson Light," he whispered a pep talk to himself, "Time to snuff out the darkness! I'm gonna save this guy so good, I'm gonna save him so hard!" He raised the hand holding his grappler and pulled the trigger, shooting a line upward and through a window. He waited for a moment as the line reeled itself in, then pulling him off the ground and up to the broken window.**

**Little Cato braced himself as the pulling line than propelled him through the window with a shattering smash, sliding across the floor underneath several writhing apparitions made from Tenebric flares. He shielded his eyes with his arms when he ended up sliding right through a passing flare. Little Cato skidded to a stop, the purple liquid covering his body evaporating away with a steaming hiss. He jumped onto his feet to see that the void-like flares were now facing him, poised to attack him like easy prey.**

**"Go on! Try and get me!" Little Cato taunted the apparitions, firing his pistol at each of them to incapacitate them with crystals. "No matter how bad you might be, you can't touch this cat!" Once he took care of them and got them all out of the way, he raced down the next hallway, deeper into the building.**

* * *

**Meanwhile, Quinn had just dropped off another batch of civilians on the ground outside the burning building. She closed the rear bay door of the Hawk as she ascended with it, her work not yet done. She heard Gary's voice patch in to her comms. _"Hey Quinn, Little Cato's going through the central level right now. Watch out for him, will'ya?"_**

**"Huh!?" Quinn gasped. "Little Cato's in there? I thought he was supposed to be watching from the ship!"**

**"_He was,"_ Gary responded, _"but then he had a real smart idea. Just ask HUE."_**

* * *

**Little Cato smashed right through the door to the storage chamber, clearing a way out for himself and the Ventrexian trapped in the room. He rushed over to the startled Ventrexian who stood just a bit from him. "Are you okay?"**

**The Ventrexian was a male with dark reddish-brown fur and a patch of combed yellow hair on top of his head. He wore a brown work shirt with a light-green right shoulder pad, blackish-brown pants, yellow gloves, and a pair of yellow-tinted safety glasses. He looked rather jumpy, judging from his reaction when Little Cato barged in. When Little Cato asked him if he was okay, he gave a nod.**

**"Okay then! Time to get you out of here!"**

**Little Cato took the canister that was previously strapped to his back, unsealed it, and flipped it upside down over his head, pouring more of the viscous purple liquid from before onto himself until his whole body was once again covered in it. He almost considered leading the Ventrexian civilian out with himself from behind, but he had to think again and fast when he noticed the flames starting to coalesce over the containers of explosive substances sitting on the shelves.**

**"Hang on tight!" he shouted to the other Ventrexian as he scooped him up into his arms and dashed out the door. Skidding into the hallway back the way he came, Little Cato didn't stop but instead sprinted as an explosion erupted from the warehouse storage room, blowing through the open door and flooding down the hall, appearing to chase after both Ventrexians. Little Cato pushed his legs to the limit as the fire behind him seemed to catch up. Then…**

* * *

**Quinn was hovering in her Hawk in front of the part of the building where the central floor was. She had hoped that this plan Little Cato came up with worked. It had to for his sake. She was almost thrown off course when an explosion erupted out of all sides of the building's central floor, shattering all its windows in the process. Quinn had to close her eyes to avoid getting blinded by the explosive fire's light. Yet that didn't keep her from catching a last-minute glimpse of a line shooting right for one of the Hawk's stability fins, seeing that it was a grappling hook. From the other end of the line swung out Little Cato holding on to said line with one arm while carrying the final Ventrexian civilian in the other.**

**"_Gary!"_ Little Cato proclaimed over the comm, _"Rescue successful!"_**

**Gary listened as Little Cato told him this with a few victorious laughs, followed shortly by hearing his little yelps of pain and remarks about the fire's heat. He smiled with pride. "Great work, Spider Cat. Beautiful job. You're far from the kitten you used to be."**

**HUE spoke to Quinn over the comms as he relayed the details to her. _"I already explained it to Gary: When Little Cato knew he did not have rescue gear, he improvised with containers of nullifier gel from the ship's supply, using said gel to act as a protective coating for his own body while he went among the flames. With that, the basic grappling tool and anti-matter weapon, and using my calculations, the chances of survival based on his plan were the highest. Hence why it worked."_**

**Even Quinn found herself smiling as she was carefully landing the Hawk, Little Cato still hanging from the wing on his grappling line while still holding on to the Ventrexian civilian.**

* * *

**Right after they landed, Little Cato had set the Ventrexian down on the grass on his back. His eyes were closed, indicating that he had passed out shortly after Little Cato escaped the building with him.**

**"Hey! Are you okay?" Little Cato called to him as he slowly opened his eyes. "You're safe now! Are you all right? Hey!" Quinn stood behind Little Cato, looking at the other Ventrexian in order to assess any possible required treatment.**

**The Ventrexian opened his eyes a little further, tiredly taking in his new surroundings, trying to figure out where he was, where his rescuer had taken him…then his eyes snapped open, a feeling of shock jolting in his chest. Deep within him, a shadow arose from the depths of his being, crawling its way into his consciousness. He convulsed, his eyes widened and mouth gaped open in stunned shock, his voice suddenly caught in his throat as he struggled to even make a sound.**

**"Huh?" Little Cato looked confused by what he was witnessing at this very moment. He leaned in closer to examine what was happening to the Ventrexian, noticing too late that wisps of nebulous void began to erupt from the civilian's body. "W-what?" Little Cato gasped, "what's happ –!?" He didn't get to finish that sentence as Quinn automatically grabbed him by the back of his collar and yanked him backwards away from the other Ventrexian, just in time for said Ventrexian to explode with dark energy. Little Cato landed on his back with dark flames licking at his body, prompting Quinn to spray him with nullifier gel to put them out.**

**"Tenebrus!" Quinn exclaimed loudly, turning her anti-matter pistol at the enflamed Ventrexian civilian and firing shots at him, knocking him back down to the ground with patches of crystal on parts of his body where he had been shot.**

**Little Cato scrambled back on his feet, clutching his body after the dark flames had been put out. "That guy…" he looked to Quinn, "…was he a Tenebrus the whole time?"**

**"I don't think so," Quinn answered Little Cato, keeping her pistol pointed and ready without taking her eyes off the Ventrexian-Tenebrus, "more like he just turned into one right now." The two watched him get up on his knees and elbows, the crystals on his body immediately cracking apart as his emerging powers repelled them. "Becoming a Tenebrus is a sudden mutation," Quinn further explained, "gaining the power to use dark energy mostly happens at random."**

**The Ventrexian, reeling from the Tenebrus powers he newly felt coursing through his body, trembled as he stared at the grass below him. "Wh – is this? N-no, no way, it can't be!" his voice quivered. "Wha – what's happening…to me!?" The dark flares erupted from him again, shooting from his body into the air like a rapidly sprouting plant in the shape of a distorted feline creature.**

**"_Quinn, Little Cato, get back!"_ HUE called to both his teammates as he pressed a button to activate the ship's turret. The turret fired at the apparition, exploding it in a cloud of antimatter which then encased it in crystal.**

**That strike, however, didn't last as a stream of dark energy suddenly shot out from the burning building nearby and landed directly on the crystallized spot, shattering it. Little Cato and Quinn swung around to look up at the source, seeing a massive and bulky figure clad in black armor with turquoise lines riding out on an ATV and onto a bridge-like ramp of dark energy, followed closely behind by another more slender black-armored figure with teal lines riding a Motocross bike. By the time they both touched down on ground level, they were already circling around Quinn and Little Cato, surrounding them with the trails of dark-colored flames left behind by their vehicles.**

**As the two Mad Tenebri were riding, the teal one zipped by the Ventrexian-Tenebrus and snatched him up, hoisting him onto their bike so that he sat behind the rider. Both the teal and turquoise Tenebri then stopped, skidding next to each other while directly facing Little Cato and Quinn in front of them.**

**"_You're not laying a hand on any of our kind!"_ the turquoise Tenebrus yelled threateningly with both clawed arms raised in a battle stance.**

**"_You better remember that for next time!"_ the teal Tenebrus similarly warned, the Ventrexian-Tenebrus still nestled on their bike behind them.**

**They both then sped away, leaving behind a nebulous cloud that blew in Quinn's and Little Cato's direction, pushing them back a little bit. When the two lowered their arms that shielded their eyes once the coast was clear, they glimpsed the Tenebri riding away down the next street into the distance, presumably out of the city, leaving behind only two trails of dark-colored fire in their wake.**

**"Who the heck are they?" Little Cato asked dumbfoundedly, not a hint of fervor left in his voice.**

**"That's the Mad Tenebri," replied Quinn.**

**"Mad…Tenebri?"**

**"Yeah. They're a terrorist group specialized in arson attacks. Burning up the city for fun's their M.O."**

**Little Cato silently stared into the distance where the fire trails continued to lead.**

* * *

"_Little Cato…Little Cato…hey Spider Cat, wake up!"_

Little Cato's eyes slowly opened, his mind gradually re-registering the world around him as he returned to consciousness. He saw that he was lying on a bed, his bed specifically, in a bedroom that he remembered was his. He was back at home, in the apartment that belonged to Gary, the man he lived with for 13 years.

Little Cato yawned as he sat upright, rubbing an eye while looking out the shuttered window. The sunshine outside was already so bright.

"Hey, Spider Cat, you up yet?" Gary's voice called from outside the bedroom door.

"Uh, yeah. Did I oversleep?"

"Nah, not really. Things were gonna be slow today, so I let you sleep in for a bit longer. Breakfast is on the table already, so come on over when you're ready."

"Okay, thanks." Little Cato looked back out the window again. He sighed. It was just another new day, and yet he felt like it just hasn't been the same.


	16. Chasing The Fox's Tail

The car ride to Crimson Light HQ had been silent so far. Gary drove, not wanting to distract Little Cato from whatever he was thinking about as he looked out the window from the passenger seat beside him.

At some point though, Gary couldn't help but look across to Little Cato, seeing him staring out the window while still looking so…troubled. It wasn't that it meant there was something wrong with his Spider Cat, but he was usually feisty, impassioned, and just as fun-loving as the other was. Gary knew this perfectly well now, but at the time he first adopted him, he thought the little cat was just somewhat bitter. The biggest thing was that Gary understood why.

_13 years ago, Little Cato's father – Avocato – was the only family he ever had growing up. Sure Gary, Quinn, and Jack were around, but it was more of a 'family friend'-thing. Even when Avocato was usually out busy dealing with Tenebri, Little Cato always had his admiration for him. At the same time though, it led to Little Cato having his own little beef with the Tenebri too. His father's death after the sudden destruction of their home by a Tenebric flare only made that beef a whole lot bigger._

So seeing his somewhat melancholic look, one that Gary was sure also held sympathy, was a rather jarring development for his Spider Cat. By the time they both arrived and parked in Crimson Light's hangar, he decided to try and talk to Little Cato some more. "Hey, uh…Spider Cat," Gary tried to ease in nice and slow as they both got out, feeling nervousness creep back in as Little Cato didn't respond at all to his words. "So, uh, about the cave…what did you find in there?"

Little Cato paused, unsure if he wanted to share this sensitive kind of information with Gary at this time. Everything that had happened at the cave remained impactful to him, even when it had only been way more than a day since then. But then again, why would he choose to hide something this important from his father figure, the man who not only raised him but had his back on every rescue mission. "When I went in the cave," he decided to open up quietly, "I found a whole group of Tenebri." The name made Gary look at Little Cato with fearful concern. But Little Cato continued, "and also…there was Ash, Ash Graven."

The sound of that name was what sent Gary staggering back. "Wait, what did you say?" he gasped. "Ash Graven? You're telling me she escaped!? Oh my crap, that's not gonna go over well…like with Quinn, Gov. Jack, and Stoney boy, oh definitely Stoney boy…"

Little Cato nodded, not bothered at all by Gary's sudden reaction. "Yeah. She was there too. She knocked me out, tied me up, and made me talk to her." He anticipated Gary's increasingly worried reaction. "It's okay, it's okay, she didn't hurt me…but she still made a point about what things were really like for people like her." Gradually as the two began to go about their day, Little Cato recounted everything that had happened that night.

"Whoa," Gary gasped quietly. "That's…I don't know what to say. That, like, changes the whole game here, man."

"I thought that the whole time I was there too," Little Cato agreed just as quietly. He took a few side glances left and right, curiously checking if anyone else in Crimson Light overheard them. He then leaned into Gary's ear to whisper. "Could you maybe keep this between us for now? I'm not sure how everyone else might handle it."

"Not to worry, Spider Cat," Gary whispered back to him. "Your secret's safe with me."

"Safe, huh?" Little Cato raised an eyebrow in return, crossing his arms while pushing his lower lip forward in an expression of mock-suspicion. "You sure? I know plenty of people who've broken into you layer by layer, gotten to your core. Not sure if I can trust you not to crack, Mr. Safe."

"Aw, come on," Gary gave a whine. "I really am a hard nut to crack! Sure, maybe a few know my ultra-complex safe combos, but I guarantee you that secrets you put in Mr. Safe here are tested 90% airtight!" Gary proudly pointed two thumbs to himself, poking his puffed out chest twice with the tips of said thumbs.

"And what about the other 10% of air that gets through," probed Little Cato, who bent towards Gary with his hands behind his back and slinked his head right up into Gary's face with a smile.

Gary leaned back defensively, even though he was trying not to laugh at Little Cato's attempt to be sassy. "Well…" he tried to start, his lower lip pressed under his upper teeth, "...umm…"

Little Cato kept smiling, waiting for Gary's "answer"...

...then Gary made a run for it.

"No! Get back here!" Little Cato dashed after the speeding Goodspeed, "I take 'em all back! I want a refund on those secrets! Gimme back what's mine, Gary!"

"Well, you already gave 'em to me," Gary protested as he kept running down the hall, "so technically, they're kinda mine now!"

They both sprinted down the entry hall, Little Cato in hot pursuit of Gary, until they rammed through a set of double doors to be suddenly met by an unexpected scene in the main hangar, forcing both of them to skid to a stop, their eyes widening at the sight of Quinn standing nose-to-nose with Superior Stone.

"_Stoney boy?"_ Gary exclaimed in an even indoor voice. _"What's he doing here?"_

"We are not doing this again, Stone!" Quinn growled angrily with a finger pointed at Stone's chin.

"We will do this as many times as it takes until you get it!" Stone snarled, leaning forward right at her.

"I haven't kept count of how many times you brought this up and I don't ever plan to," Quinn snarled right back. Stone huffed in return before storming away from her, moving to the opening of the hangar. Quinn didn't notice that Little Cato and Gary were now standing next to her after Stone had left a good distance away. "Oh, hey guys," she greeted them, sounding a little bit startled.

"Hey Quinn," Little Cato greeted back. "What was Stone doing here?"

Quinn turned away, not wanting to let either one, especially Little Cato, see her frustrated expression. She looked Gary's way. "Apparently, there's been some kind of surprise incident that sprung up on Scarlet Lance's itinerary, and that's gotten Stone super stressed." She turned around to put her hands on her hips. "Stone's wanting to tell us to do another 'collaboration' with them," she spat out that aforementioned word, "which we all know how it tends to work out."

Gary narrowed his eyes, knowing what that meant. Little Cato, on the other hand, tilted his head in confusion. "Well, not you, Little Cato," Quinn turned to him, holding up a hand as a little sign of reassurance, "you didn't know that yet."

"Collaboration?" Little Cato asked both Gary and Quinn out loud.

"It just means they want us to do their dirty work," Gary remarked to him.

"No," Quinn corrected, "it means they want to volunteer us to use lethal force in case a Tenebrus operation goes south."

"Exactly," Gary insisted. "They want us to do the dirtiest job they don't wanna do, just because they want to keep looking like the good guys!"

Hearing that, Little Cato gulped, shivering at the thought of having to try and kill a Tenebrus, even worse if he was forced to try and do that to Ash Graven; he couldn't imagine that going well. But then he also wondered if Scarlet Lance really had that much jurisdiction, if not authority, over other lower-level rescue squads like Crimson Light. He even wondered if the possibility of killing Tenebri was part of what Quinn and Stone constantly fought each other over.

Meanwhile, Gary found himself occupied by a human-shaped problem of his own. A few meters away from the ship that Superior Stone had just boarded after his argument with Quinn, Sheryl was standing and looking across the hangar to Gary himself. Gary held a rather displeased expression on his face when he looked at her before turning to find some other business to attend to. Little Cato noticed what Gary did only moments before and curiously turned to look to Sheryl as well before following Gary to whichever corner of the hangar he was headed.

"Did your mom do something, Gary?" Little Cato asked, getting straight to the point.

Gary blew through his lips. "Nope, nothing...yet." He picked up a stray paddle that he once used to play Thimbles with Little Cato just under a week ago, fiddling around with it between his fingers. "I don't have a choice seeing her again...and again...but I sure still wish she didn't need to be 10 years too slow on the uptake."

"You told her something 10 years ago?" Little Cato inquired further, fascination all over his curious face.

"I told her a lot of things actually," Gary clarified with the point of a finger, "and I really hope to who-knows-what that she better get the message already." When he finished saying that, he left, dropping any stuff he picked up with rough carelessness, making Little Cato flinch.

* * *

Later on in the day, Little Cato was in the middle of testing out a new mech suit that HUE had just finished designing.

"Alright, Little Cato, rotate your right arm so I can analyze the joint," HUE instructed.

Little Cato did exactly that. The sensation from the mechanical parts moving smoothly transferring their energy to his flesh felt somewhat nice, almost like a massage.

"It looks like all the joints have been assembled properly," HUE concluded, inputting more data into a plugged-in console. Behind his back, Little Cato practiced a few punches while still in control of the mech suit's limbs.

As he played around with the controls, he was approached by a particular Tryvuulian who was just as curious about HUE's latest developments.

"Hey Ventrexian!" Fox called out loudly and suddenly, almost making Little Cato fall over forward in the mech suit. "Planning on breaking your new toy in the next mission?"

Little Cato narrowed his eyes, displeased with a few things about Fox's sudden intrusion. The orange feline had only been in Crimson Light for less than a year, but he had already achieved so much in that short time. But even after all that, Fox decidedly didn't know Little Cato well enough to not call him by his people's name. However, it wasn't really as antagonistic as it was mostly in casual jest, even if it did mostly come at Little Cato's expense. "Who knows, Tryv…Fox?" he quipped back, careful to keep on being the more mature one between himself and Fox…even if his people's history did keep getting in the way.

"Oh, I know," Fox declared, "It's gonna end up with you going all _'ka-chow'_, _'boom'_, _'yaaahh'_ and then standing like you're a star!" Fox was making lots of exaggerated poses as he said this, then slumping in disappointed relaxation, "...took me at least a year to get that noticed…"

Little Cato sighed at the pouty sight in front of him. "Just…what do you want, Fox?"

"Nothing," Fox said in protest, "just heard about Scarlet Lance getting all up our backs over more Tenebrus sightings near the city, AND I WAS NOT LOOKING FOR SOMEONE TO VENT AT 'CAUSE STONE INSULTED ME, OKAY!?" He finished it off with a stomp of the foot and a pump of his machine gun arm.

"Whoa, whoa, okay," Little Cato raised his hands defensively, moving his mech suit's hands as well. "Are you done now? Have you finally vented?"

"Eh, enough of it, I guess," Fox answered much more calmly this time. "But I actually was just curious about what you think that whole thing with Quinn and Stone was about."

"Beats me. Quinn and Stone are infamous for arguing with each other over anything and everything."

"Well, you think we'll be fighting with the Mad Tenebri again?"

It was in that moment that Little Cato stopped, frozen and silent as the recent memories associated with that name slammed back into the forefront of his mind like an oncoming truck. He remembered asking Gary to promise never to speak of his talk with Ash to anyone else and reminded himself not to speak of it in turn. "What…makes you think that?" he asked hesitantly.

"Well, I don't know," Fox said, "It's just that they're the most dangerous guys out there, and they have to be really good at what they do to be called that. Just looked a little too easy when you caught 'em. I mean, no one who's fought a Tenebrus is that good." Little Cato couldn't help but scowl at that remark, but that didn't stop Fox from talking. "...and their leader…" At that last part, Fox suddenly sounded very quiet.

Little Cato's face relaxed, no longer tense but dropped into a look of jarred curiosity as he observed the Tryvuulian's sudden change in attitude, not expecting him to start speaking out of character. "Wh-what about the leader?" he reminded himself to ask, sounding a little quiet himself.

Fox turned around, not willing to look at the Ventrexian while being confronted by the thought of imminently opening himself up to someone like him. "W-we-well, it's just that when I looked at her, she reminded me of someone!" he began, starting off defensively, "Someone I used to know…"

"Yeah? And who's that special someone?" asked Little Cato while giving a side-eye glance, thinking he won't be surprised by what he might hear.

The way Little Cato asked that question rather flippantly made Fox narrow his eyes at him in irritation. Closing his eyes, Fox took a deep breath and then…"YOU KNOW WHAT!? NEVER MIND! IF I WANNA DIG UP MY PAST ABOUT MY FAMILY AGAIN WITHOUT GETTING VENTREXIAN ATTITUDE, I'LL JUST TALK TO KVN!" Fox turned away and stormed off, leaving a reactionless HUE and a visibly flinching Little Cato slightly quaking in his mech suit.

"Uh, what's up with Fox?" he managed to squeak out to HUE once he knew the Tryvuulian was fully out of sight and hearing range.

"It is unknown," HUE replied, "For his outgoing disposition, anything regarding his personal past are the only things Fox will not openly discuss." He pressed a key that commanded the mech suit to unfold and allow Little Cato to step out of it. "As he likes to say, _'I ran from it for a reason'_ when even the word 'past' is spoken directly to him."

"So nobody knows Fox's past?" Little Cato questioned for clarification.

"Well, he did just mention talking to KVN," HUE warily worded his response, "and I don't like the sound of that."

* * *

"KVN, heeeeyyy!"

KVN had been busy floating around the hangar on the lookout for Crimson Light teammates he could 'talk to', but never expected any of them to come to him for a talk. That was why the moment he heard Little Cato's 'enthusiastic' call directed to him, he swung around and zoomed into the Ventrexian's face without hesitation.

"Little Cato! 'Heeeeyyy' to you too!"

Little Cato had to wrestle a bit to pry and then push the yellow orb-like robot off his face. "Grgh! KVN! Can't breathe!"

"Wow! This is wonderful!" KVN twirled around in the air as he fantasized out loud, not paying attention to Little Cato standing behind him trying to get his bearings. "A true companion, finally coming to me for comfort, security, guidance, companionship…"

"Actually, KVN," Little Cato interrupted him before he could go further, "I just wanted to ask you something real quick."

"Ooooh," KVN went at it again, swiveling around and zooming to Little Cato until he was only several inches away from his nose, "you've come to me to seek answers? Ask me anything you want, buddy! Any question at all! What kind of question you wanna ask? Is it about love? Romance? Gary's secret cookie stash? Homework? Me? Quinn's -"

"Did Fox ever tell you about his past?"

KVN floated silently for a moment, processing the question Little Cato gave so suddenly. "Past? Fox? Fox's past?"

"Yes!...KVN. Fox's past." said Little Cato with exasperation, already feeling the annoyance creeping back in little by little, his patience wearing thin.

"Well, yeah!" KVN began, "He did come to me to talk about his past. I'm the only one who knows, 'cause I'm the only one he told."

"And, you know that how?"

"Oh, he told me that himself," KVN gave a roll of his eye, "He said that no one else knows."

"And...what did you tell you?"

"Oh, that I can't say!" KVN suddenly moved away from Little Cato. "Fox made me promise him to never tell anyone what he told me, and I mean, everyone!"

"_So that's how it is, huh?"_ Little Cato thought. He had no idea KVN could actually agree to make promises to people, but then again, KVN simply was, and even that fact proved to be unknowable. He needed a plan to get KVN to tell him without actually telling him to. Fortunately, at the very least, KVN was easily more of a gabber than a secret keeper.

Walking right up to KVN, he grabbed the robot's chassis with both hands and forcibly turned him around until he was face-to-face, pulling his eye right against his own nose. "KVN! You have to help me!" he exclaimed in a faux-panicked voice. "Fox is in a really bad spot right now and I need to know how to talk to him!"

"Omigosh! Fox is in trouble?" KVN said with real panic in his vocal synthesizers.

"Yeah! Tell me everything you know about Fox's past! Don't tell me what he told you! Tell me what you know!"

For a second, KVN didn't say anything, but once he did, "Okay! Anything for a friend!" And just like that, he began to reveal to Little Cato what he knew from what Fox allowed him to know:

* * *

_Fox was extremely young when he lost his parents. He had effectively been an orphan for most of the early years of his life, at least until later in his cognizant childhood that he was picked up by slavers and then shipped off and sold on the planet Serepentis. There, he was bought by a couple who happened to have two daughters at home. _

_He was purchased with the intent on being a house servant, but he somehow grew on the two daughters – sisters – who took a rapid liking to him and even viewed him as their brother. Fox didn't expect that kind of treatment, but he liked it very much, so in turn, he began to see them as sisters as well. _

_Then one day, the sisters were selected to take part in a ritual ceremony for the village's patron god in which he got to attend and watch as well. But to his shock, judging from the giant terrifying monster that appeared before them, it appeared that the sisters were going to be sacrificed. Fox was already horrified when he saw the younger sister swallowed whole by the monster itself, but what came after would stay at the top of all his buried memories for the rest of his life. _

_The older remaining sister suddenly lost control and in one fell swoop, killed all the attendees within proximity of her, her parents included. The familiar purple energy and the darkened eye told him one thing – she turned into a Tenebrus right before his eyes. _

_Seeing what she became and did knocked him off his feet in fear, unable to take his eyes off his only remaining sister figure who, after seeing his fearful state, took off running while destroying everything in her path, which he assumed was from lack of control. _

_That was the last time he saw her. On that night, he had truly become alone once again._

* * *

Little Cato took in all this information like a sponge. He felt a little bit in awe over the circumstances surrounding Fox's background and current personality that was shaped by said background. He was, for all intents and purposes, adopted and had gotten himself two sisters, later losing both of them by one dying to a serpentine monster and the other mutating into a Tenebrus. Little Cato had no idea how the Tryvuulian managed it on his own after that, but he wasn't going to go that much deeper than KVN's account.

"_Dispatch request for Crimson Light. Dispatch request for Crimson Light."_

The sirens and automated notifier suddenly rang and echoed within the walls of the hangar bay, which everyone knew was time to get to work.

Little Cato made a dash for the ship, running past HUE who was meticulously working to get the new mech suit onto the ship's loading bay as quick as he and his available tools were physically able; no one else was helping.

Fox rushed on board like Little Cato, only he seemed a little more abrasive in his steps; Little Cato narrowly avoided getting a violent shoulder bump from him.

And as usual, Gary was moving to the forefront of the ship on the bridge, getting ready to pilot the vessel out the hangar for another rescue mission out somewhere in Tera Con Alpha.

"Alright, Crimson Light!" Gary barked his usual opening. "Let's rock and roll out!"

"Yeah! Let's get 'em, Gary!" came a familiar chipper robot's voice.

"NO, KVN! YOU GET IN THAT CLOSET! GET BACK IN THE CLOSET!"


End file.
